World Time Standard

[Frank Gentges]

Now it looks like Mecca wants to set the standard of worldwide time.  See

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/New-Clock-Tower-in-Mecca-Challenges-Greenwich-Mean-Time-4680

However, no mention is made of the establishment of multiple atomic 
standards of any sort.  They seem to be focused on huge 150 ft diameter 
clock dials with leds and flashing at prayer time.  It could all be done 
with a PIC chip and big led array drivers.  Joe Bento did this last year 
for several of us at Dayton.

They need to do more than flashy lights and giant dials to become the 
world standard of time.  How about a rack load collection of surplus 
rubidium standards and some motorcycle batteries?

I visited the Blue Mosque in Istanbul Turkey several years ago and they 
had some fascinating grandfather type clocks that could follow the rules 
about prayer time.  They were unable to discuss any detail about these 
clocks.  A detailed study of these would be a good starting point 
establishing the early history of middle eastern time keeping.

Frank K0BRA