Speaking clock
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A speaking clock service is used for people who wish to know the correct and accurate time. Speaking clock services are most commonly accessed by telephone.
The format of the service is somewhat similar to those in radio time signal services. Every ten seconds or so, a voice announces "At the third stroke, it will be twelve, forty six and ten seconds...", for example, with three beeps following. At the third beep, the time at that point is the time announced previously.
In many parts of the United States, a speaking clock can be reached by ringing the seven digit number 853-1212. Every ten seconds, a mature female voice announces the time of day according to this formula: "Good (morning / afternoon / evening)! At the tone, (time zone) (standard / daylight) time will be (hour):(o'clock / minute) (exactly / and (n) seconds)," followed by a one-second tone.
Speaking clock services are not, in fact, always useful for amateur scientific purposes, since the time feed for the speaking clock is not always ensured to be exactly accurate, plus time delays through the telephone. However the British Telecom service is assured to be accurate to five thousandths of a second.
A speaking clock service first started in Britain, from July 24, 1936. There have been at least five different voices heard on the British Speaking Clock with Brian Cobby being the current voice. Comedian Lenny Henry provided the voice for two weeks as part of Comic Relief fund-raising in March 2003. A 12-year-old girl from Scotland, Alicia Roland, became the voice of the Speaking Clock for a week in October 2003 after winning a competition, the first time a child's voice had been used in the history of this telephone service.
During the Cold War, the British Telecom speaking clock was used to broadcast messages from Bomber Command to civil defence stations to HANDEL units at regional police stations. These, in turn, were used to send coded messages to start air-raid sirens and voice messages to a network of civil defence volunteers.
Many shortwave radio time signal services provide speaking clock services, such as WWV and WWVH, operated by the National Bureau of Standards from the United States of America. To avoid disruption with devices who rely on the accurate timings and placement of the service tones from the radio, the voice recording may be "notched" clear of some of the tones.
Electronic speaking clocks and wristwatches are available, many marketed to the visually impaired.sv:Fröken Ur