Speaking Clock Introduced

Search hotels

Check-in date

Check-out date

Speaking Clock Introduced

The 24th of July 1936 AD

The first voice of the speaking clock was that of telephonist Ethel Jane Cane, who worked at the Victoria Telephone exchange in London . She won a competition involving 15,000 telephonists, which incidentally helped no end to promote the upcoming service, her prize being eternal fame and ten guineas. Or fame until 1963 when another vice was used.
These days the equipment is of course digital, occupying space the volume of a suitcase; in 1936 the glass discs, relays, valves and other gizmos filled a room.
In time-keeping terms the new system, reached by dialling TIM (i.e. 846) in major cities like Manchester and London, and 952 elsewhere, was another technological leap-forward as significant as that provided by the railway age. The railways brought in the need for time to be as closely co-ordinated as possible to allow for smooth timetabling; the speaking clock made that timekeeping work... precisely. At the third stroke.

More famous dates here

7421 views since 12th July 2010

Brit Quote:
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. - Charles Dickens
More Quotes

On this day:
Tolpuddle Martyrs Sentenced - 1834, Argentine Forces land on South Georgia - 1982
More dates from British history

click here to view all the British counties

County Pages