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by joezydeco 2651 days ago
If you were a sailor, accurate time was pretty important. Lots of maritime communities used time balls to sync up the clocks on ships.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_ball

(This is also where the NYC Times Square ball drop on New Year's Eve comes from)

Technically, you had a farther and faster reach with an optical system than you did with a church bell. But at this scale the error difference wasn't that large.