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Speaking clock


A speaking clock or talking clock is a live or recorded human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observatory, on 14 February 1933.

The format of the service is similar to that of radio time signal services. At set intervals (e.g. ten seconds) a voice announces (for example) "At the third stroke, the time will be twelve forty-six and ten seconds...", with three beeps following. Some countries have sponsored time announcements and include the sponsor's name in the message.

In 1995, the ASEAN has set up nine speaking clocks.

The voice is computer-generated in ten languages: Chinese (Singapore), English (every country), Indonesian (Indonesia), Khmer (Cambodia), Lao (Laos), Malay (Malaysia, Brunei), Tagalog (Philippines), Tamil (Singapore), Thai (Thailand) and Vietnamese (Vietnam).

This service replaced services in Malaysia (owned by F3), Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (owned by the navy), which already had speaking clock services.

In Argentina, users can reach the automatic time service dialing 113 from almost every fixed line operator.

In Australia, the number 1194 gives the speaking clock in all areas and from all providers. It is always the current time from where the call originates. A male voice, often known by Australians as the time man, says "At the third stroke, it will be (hours) (minutes) and (seconds) seconds/precisely. (three beeps)" e.g. "At the third stroke, it will be three thirty three and forty seconds ... beep beep beep". These are done in 10 second increments and the beep is 1 kHz.

Prior to automatic systems, the subscriber rang an operator who would quote the time from a central clock in the exchange with a phrase such as "The time by the exchange clock is...". This was not precise and the operator could not always answer when the subscriber wanted. In 1954, British-made systems were installed in Melbourne and Sydney. The mechanical speaking clock used rotating glass discs where different parts of the time were recorded on the disc. A synchronous motor drove the disc with the driving source derived from a 5 MHz Quartz Oscillator via a multi stage valve divider. This was amplified to give sufficient impetus to drive the motor. Because of the low torque available, a hand wheel was used to spin the motor on start up. The voice was provided by Gordon Gow. The units were designed for continuous operation. Both units in Melbourne and Sydney were run in tandem (primary and backup). For daylight saving time changes, one would be on line while the second was advanced or delayed by one hour and at the 02:00:00 Australian Eastern Standard time, would be switched over to the standby unit.


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