Dysons Clock Shop Time Ball - Leeds, UK - Time Signals on Waymarking.com

This shop was established before Greenwich Meant Time became the standard time throughout the UK. Before the industrial revolution there was little need to have perfectly accurate time. However with the advent of railways, it was difficult to organise timetables when individual cities all had their own time. Leeds was 6 minutes 10 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time.

By 1852 the Greenwich observatory in London started to send telegraphs to railway stations at 13:00 each day, so that they could set their clocks to London Time. The railways could then more easily set their timetables, using what became known as Railway Time. The railway stations were also allowed to pass on the time signal to local clock and watch makers.

This company called Dysons took advantage of the facility to set their time accurately to London time and use this as a selling point. As well as setting the time on the clock, the 13:00 time signal triggered a time ball, as a visual signal that it was one o’clock. This was the same mechanism that Greenwich used to signal 13:00 hours.

The company had already erected 2 impressive clocks on the wall of the shop to advertise their business. The addition of a time ball was another advertising method and an indication of the quality of their time pieces.

There are actually 2 time balls, but I don’t whether the small one above a clock was actually used. The main time ball is on the top of a dome on the building.

Time balls continued to be used throughout the UK until 1924, when the telegraph system was replaced with a radio signal. Very few time balls still survive in the U.K.

The clock business closed in 1990 and the building now houses an Indian Restaurant the AM kitchen and Restaurant.

Type: Time Ball In service: no Time of signal: 13:00 Address: 24 - 26 Briggate Leeds West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS1 6ND Weblink (if any): [Web Link] Year established (if known): Not listed Year decommissioned (if applicable): Not listed

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