Edinburgh’s One O’clock Gun startles citizens for the first time
On 28 January 1861, a major bit of news concerning Scotland’s capital city was being reported on: the inaugural firing of what would become the One O’clock Gun.
Public demand grew in Edinburgh during the 1850s for an accurate time service, but instead of a clock the ‘Time-ball’ on top of the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill was installed.
The ball was wound up to the top of a pole and dropped by an electrical charge at exactly one o’clock. There were problems of course. The ball was not visible through ‘mists or other optical obstructions’ – or if you happened to be looking the other way at one o’clock. Undaunted, the public subscribed to the introduction of an audible time signal.
It was decided that the report of a cannon would be heard much more clearly than the stroke of a bell and the Royal Artillery provided a 94 pound gun at Edinburgh Castle.
Experiments with other guns had resulted in nearby windows breaking. The cannon was connected to time-keeping equipment at the Observatory on Calton Hill by a 4,200ft long insulated cable which operated a mechanical trigger to fire the gun at exactly the right time.
The cable was the longest in the world at the time and the clock was kept to the precise time by astronomical observations. The time gun is now a well-loved tradition and continues to ‘startle’ citizens (and tourists) 150 years on. The Time Gun Precisely at one o’clock P.M. on Saturday, the citizens were startled by a boom from one of the Castle guns.
People on the streets waited in wondering expectancy for the next shot, while those within doors hastily turned up their almanacs but looked in vain for any royal anniversary at the date.
The expected succession of peals, however, did not meet the ear; the salute, if such it were, was evidently not a royal one in the ordinary sense, and people not in the secret became more puzzled than ever.
But the feeling of suspense – proverbially unpleasant – was not of long duration; and before many minutes, we believe, the great bulk of the inhabitants by reflection, by communicated information, by intuition, or by some other more or less obscure process of ratiocination had arrived at the conclusion that the gun which they had heard was the first report of Mr Hewat’s audible time-signal.
Farther inquiry elicited that this conclusion was nearly correct, and the precise circumstances we understand to have been as follows: About noon on Saturday, a deputation from the Chamber of Commerce met by appointment with Sir John Douglas, the Adjutant General, and Colonel Mclean, the commander of the artillery in North Britain, to arrange about firing the time signal.
The deputation was accompanied by Professor Smythe, the Astronomer-royal; Mr Davidson, Superintendent of the Telegraph Company; and Mr Ritchie, of Messrs Ritchie & Son, watch and clock makers, Leith Street, who it may be here said, have liberally offered to provide free of expense, the apparatus for discharging the gun and also the requisite circuit-break at the top of Nelson’s Monument.
The deputation was most cordially received and after the necessary arrangements had been talked over, Colonel Mclean proposed at once to proceed to the Castle and fix upon the most suitable site for the gun.
A gun was accordingly fired as an experiment as nearly as possible simultaneously with the falling of the time-ball on Nelson’s Monument; and to-day (Monday) one will be fired hourly beginning at 10.30am, and ending at 3.30pm. The charge at 10.30, 12.30 and 2.30 will be six pounds of powder, and at 11.30, 1.30 and 3.30, eight pounds.
The object of these experiments being merely to ascertain the size of gun and the position which are best adapted to convey the sound most widely. They must of course not be received as any test of accuracy of time.