The first telephone speaking clock went into operation in Paris on this date in 1933. The UK followed suit on 24 July 1936. Here are 10 things you might not know about the speaking clock:
It used to be known as TIM, despite the voice being female up to 1985. This was because in the early days, people accessed the service by dialling those letters on a dial phone (846). At least, they did in the six biggest cities. Other exchanges used other numbers. By the 1990s it had been standardised to 123 in all parts of the UK.
Before the railways came along it wasn’t that important for every part of the country to be using the same time. Using the sun as a guide, local times would differ. Cornwall, for example, would be 20 minutes behind London. When people started travelling by train it suddenly mattered what time it was elsewhere. The phrase “passing the time of day” originated from people who would go to meet the train from London, on which there would be people who had set their Watches to London time and could tell you what the time was in London as well as imparting all the latest city gossip. In due course, people would call the telephone exchange to settle arguments about what time it was.
The first person to call the speaking clock was the then Astronomer Royal, Harold Spencer Jones. The voice he heard was that of Ethel Jane Cain, a telephonist who had won a competition to become the “Golden Voice”.
At time of writing, there have been five permanent voices. Ethel Cain’s voice was used until 1963, and then it was one Pat Simmons, another telephonist, who was the voice until 1985. An interesting fact here was that one of the two original machines, which had been working all that time, finally failed on the day Pat Simmons died. Brian Cobby was the third permanent voice from 1985 to 2007. He was an assistant supervisor at a telephone exchange in Brighton but before he worked for BT he recorded the “5-4-3- 2-1…Thunderbirds are go!” for the theme tune to Gerry Anderson’s TV series. The next voice was Sara Mendes da Costa from 2007 to 2016; and at time of writing the speaking clock’s voice belongs to Alan Steadman, who took over in 2016. On occasion, celebrity voices are used for short periods in aid of charities. Celebrities who have lent their voices to the speaking clock include Lenny Henry, Kimberley Walsh, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Gary Barlow, Chris Moyles, David Walliams, Fearne Cotton, Davina McCall, Ian McKellen, Jo Brand and Clare Balding, who, instead of the usual pips had a barking dog, so she’d say “at the third woof.”
The mechanism used at the beginning was an array of motors, Glass discs, photocells and valves. It took up the floorspace of a small room. The equipment involved in the current clock uses no more space than a suitcase.
During the Cold War, the British Telecom speaking clock network was designed to be used in case of nuclear attack to broadcast messages from Strike Command at RAF High Wycombe to HANDEL units at regional police stations, to tell them when to sound the sirens. The reason for using this rather than a dedicated system was that the government could be confident that it would work. It was effectively always under test; users would report faults on the line which could be promptly fixed rather than relying on a separate system which was only used when there was a war, and could fail at the critical moment.
So how does it cope with the occasional leap second, used to keep the clocks in synch over time? When a leap second is due, a second’s pause is added before the third beep.
When the speaking clock was first launched calls to the service cost one penny from home. Today a call costs about 40 times that much.
Between 1986 and 2008, the message included the phrase "sponsored by Accurist"; Accurist withdrew their sponsorship in 2008.
You’d think in modern times, with computers and accurate watches there’d be no need for a speaking clock, but according to The BBC, 3 million people a year still call it. So why? In a small number of cases, it might be people who just want to hear a human voice. Brian Cobby used to receive fan mail from people who used the service late at night just to hear his calm voice. Mostly, though, it’s when knowing the exact time to the second is crucial. It’s said that calls to the service peak just before five o'clock, when call-centre staff want to avoid picking up a 20-minute call from an irate customer. There are four days of the year when calls to the service peak. These are: the two days when the clocks change (so people can check whether the clock on a device has updated itself, for example); Remembrance Day (so the two minutes silence can begin at precisely eleven o’clock); and of course, New Year's Eve.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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