Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia.


An electronic instrument used for measuring extremely short intervals of time, such as the time of passage of a rifle bullet between two points.



an instrument for comparing the readings of two clocks.

The two disks of a chronoscope have narrow, uniformly spaced radial slits: one disk has ten slits numbered from 0 to 9, and the other has 100 slits numbered from 0 to 99. A flash lamp is positioned behind the disks, which rotate on a single axis with angular velocities of 1 and 10 revolutions per second, respectively. The flash lamp fires upon reception of electrical signals from the clocks being compared, illuminating the slits and numbers above the lamp at the given instant. A set of fixed index marks permits the observer to determine readings down to one-tenth of a division of the second disk, which corresponds to a nominal precision of 0.1 millisecond. The difference in the readings of various clocks may be determined with high accuracy by feeding electrical pulses from the clocks to a chronoscope. Photographic chronoscopes are equipped with a device for photographing the disk readings.

Chronoscopes were commonly used in astronomy, physics, and experimental biology until the mid-20th century; they have been replaced by more advanced electronic instruments.

References in periodicals archive ?
Tide: Tidal Chronoscope HD app is less than 1 week old, yet is already a star in the Navigation category of the App Store.
fertility" (30-31 in Hooper's text); the insect- or machine-like precision of the Stingingman's method of injecting his victims with venom (35); the insect ingredients within the Othertime meal that Scudamour suspects of maintaining the poison in his horn (80); the disturbing dreams that plague the chronoscope observers after witnessing the scenes in Othertime (33); the "dreams" and "waking hallucination[s]" of Othertimers leading to discoveries of more "historical" versions of the "Smokehorse" and other fabulous creatures from Othertime nursery- and folktales (88); and the nightmares that children suffer so that the Othertime experimenters may exploit them to spy on our Earth-time (88-89).
The Junghans 'Max Bill' Chronoscope timepiece is a work of art from the Bauhaus-educated Swissman.
com), a Miami Beach-based company, is the developer behind the ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope application for iPhone, one of the fastest growing paid iPhone applications.
They chose the color scheme of gold and luxurious materials to be featured on the 40mm ChronoScope watch including a 2-carat double row of diamonds set in an 18 Karat Rose Gold Bezel and Caramel Alligator Strap.