Deal Time Ball
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Deal Time Ball is a Victorian maritime Greenwich Mean Time signal located on the roof of a waterfront four-storey tower in the coastal town of Deal, in Kent. It was established in 1855 by the Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy in collaboration with Charles V. Walker, superintendent of telegraphs for the South Eastern Railway Company. It was built by the Lambeth firm of engineers Maudslay and Field. The Time Ball, which like the Greenwich time ball fell at 1pm precisely, was triggered by an electric signal directly from the Royal Observatory.
Before it became a time ball tower the tower was a semaphore tower used to signal to the ships at anchor in the dover channel.
