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Iconic 19th Century time ball back on Edinburgh's Calton Hill

Morag Kinniburgh
BBC Scotland
BBC Workers wearing high visibility jackets and hard hats reinstall the black, shiny time ball on the Nelson Monument. BBC
The time ball has been fitted back into place on Edinburgh's Nelson Monument

A large wood and metal ball used by ships' crews as a visual aid to set their clocks by has been reinstalled at the top of Edinburgh's Nelson Monument following restoration work.

The device, which is called a time ball and is more than 170 years old, is traditionally dropped down a pole to signal that the time is 13:00.

The firing of the one o'clock gun at Edinburgh Castle was later added to mark the time on foggy days when it was harder see the Calton Hill monument from Leith docks.

The 19th Century time ball, restored at a cost of £500,000, is to be dropped again daily from next month.

Getty Images The ball is black in colour and at the bottom of a white pole-like structure which has arms pointing north, south, east and west. The contraption is on top of a round stone-built turret-like structure.Getty Images
The ball, pictured before its restoration, in a lowered position at the top of the Nelson Monument.

Karl Chapman, City of Edinburgh Council's head of heritage, culture, museums and galleries, said the time ball was once cutting edge technology.

He said it allowed sailors to set their clocks to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), an international standard for time from 1884 to 1972, and used as an aid to ships' navigation systems.

Mr Chapman said: ''Now we have GPS and phones but back in the day this was modern technology."

''People are still fascinated by this today which is why it's important we maintain the time ball and the Nelson Monument - it's a fascinating piece of history and mechanism.''

Workers wearing high visibility jackets and white hard hats carefully unload the time ball from the back of a lorry.
The time ball was restored by English firm Cumbrian Clock Company

The wood and metal time ball was taken down for repair last year.

Restorers in the north of England found the zinc coating had failed and the wood beneath was rotten in places.

The ball was lifted and lowered manually, the last public timepiece in the UK to be wound by hand.

The process is now to be automated.

A crane lowers the ball onto the top of Nelson Monument which is covered in scaffolding.
A crane was used to raising the ball in place on the Nelson Monument

Mark Crangle, a restorer from the Cumbrian Clock Company, said it was great to be involved in such a prominent project.

He said: ''It's not very often you get to work on a time ball.

"It's quite unique and it has its own history so it's quite nice, because it's not worked for quite a few years now.

"It's right in the centre of Edinburgh and everybody looks up and sees it so it's nice to bring that back alive again.''

Mark is smiling at the camera. He is wearing a blue hard hat and yellow hi vis top. He has a blue t-shirt on underneath.
Restorer Mark Crangle said the project offered a rare chance to restore a time ball

Margaret Graham, City of Edinburgh Council's culture and communities convener, said: ''Half a million pounds sounds like a lot of money but in the scheme of things, in our heritage buildings, it's not a lot.

"It's a lot of specialist work that needs to be done.''

She added: ''The Calton Hill itself gets a million visitors every year and it's important that we keep our heritage buildings in good repair, and also residents are very proud of their heritage so it's important from that perspective as well.''

SAFFRON BLAZE Nelson Monument is a five storey stone tower on top of a hill, You can just make out the tructure where the balls drops down at the top of the monument.SAFFRON BLAZE
The time ball was first installed on the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill in 1852 and would drop daily at 13:00