Związani czasem i miejscem, czyli o krakowskiej służbie czasu drugiej połowy XIX i początku XX wieku

Abstract

BOUND BY PLACE AND TIME: ON THE TIME SERVICE IN KRAKÓW IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH AND THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

The article introduces the routine of the time service functionaries in Kraków in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. The time-keeping personnel consisted of the time servant employed at the Jagiellonian University Astronomical Observatory, the firemen who sounded the bugle call from one of the towers of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a.k.a. the Mariacki Church), and the city clockmakers. The work of every one of them was an important contribution to the keeping of official city time in Kraków. The duty of the timekeeper employed at the Jagiellonian University Astronomical Observatory was to promptly signal the midday time, to which the buglers would ring the bell and sound the call. The clocks across Kraków were adjusted to that signal. The timekeepers lived and worked under difficult conditions; they were “bound by place and time”. Still, they were well aware of the weight of their duty and frequently referred to the daily requirement of punctuality and accuracy. The midday hour was always of overriding importance in their work. It was the obligation to pinpoint the noon that determined their service as a whole. Complaints lodged against inaccurately signalling the time may suffice to reflect the gravity of the situation. However, account should also be taken of bad weather as a repeated obstacle for giving the precise time. The timekeepers in Kraków were employed by the municipality and were engaged in other professions at the same time. The buglers were members of the city fire brigade, the city clockmaker kept a shop, while the time servant in the Jagiellonian University Astronomical Observatory was the only manual labourer employed at the facility. Interestingly, during the discussed period the functions connected with the time service in Kraków were performed by the same people for many years. Their duty must be preserved from oblivion, and such is the purpose of this article.