The speaking clock is a stroke of genius
At the third stroke, the time will be 12:46 and 10 seconds.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that those words are a sample sentence of time telling from the speaking clock.
After years of people calling a “live” operator, the speaking clock was introduced on July 24, 1936.
It was first voiced by Ethel Jane Cain, who had entered a competition to find the right voice.
She won 10 guineas as well as being immortalised for all time.
Her voice was recorded on to glass discs in a similar method to the way film soundtracks were made.
A variety of motors, glass discs, photocells and valves made up the mechanism, and the service was obtained by dialling the letters TIM (846) on a telephone, which led to the service being nicknamed Tim, though this was only used in a few cities.
Other areas initially dialled 952 but this was later changed to 80 then 8081 as more recorded services were introduced.
By the early ’90s, the number was standardised as 123.
Ethel’s time announcements were made by playing short, recorded phrases or words in the correct sequence.
“The way I recorded it was in jerks, as it were,” said Ethel.
“‘At the third stroke’ does for all times, then I counted from one, two, three, four, for the hours.
“We even went as far as 24, in case the 24-hour clock should need to be used.
“We also recorded ‘. . . and 10 seconds, and 20 seconds, and 30, 40, 50 seconds’, and ‘o’clock’ and ‘precisely’.
“So what you hear is, “At the third stroke, it will be 1:21 and 40 seconds.’”
You’d think in this day and age of smartphones, tablets and laptops that we’d be less inclined to use the service but, as a matter of fact, it receives around 60 million calls a year.
Accurate to five thousandths of a second, even Big Ben is timed by it!
It did cause outrage in 2013, however, when the Ministry of Defence ran up bills of £40,000, just from their calls to 123.
At the time, the jobs of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen were at risk.
There have been guest time lords and ladies, too – in the name of charity, Gary Barlow, David Walliams and Sir Ian McKellen have lent their dulcet tones to the clock.
For a fortnight in 2003, Lenny Henry commandeered the clock to raise money for Comic Relief and used a different character every day for the entire time.
His run was so successful, he did it again in 2009.
In 2013, Clare Balding was accompanied by a barking dog, with the time announced “at the third woof”.
Accurate to five thousandths of a second