Last week, Mary and I were in the UK for a combined business and pleasure trip. One day was spent in Greenwich at the Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum.Arriving in Greenwich via boat. The trip down the Thames takes about 1.5 hours. That’s the Cutty Sark in the background.
My objective for the day was to visit the Royal Observatory. You walk up a long and steep hill to reach the Observatory. This is about half way up.
The gate clock at the entry.
The Observatory
The Red Ball atop one of the buildings was how mariners time their departures from Greenwich. Here is a bit of info about the ball and the origin of the phrase “Keep your eye on the ball".
The Royal Observatory in Greenwich in London has the oldest surviving time ball in the world. A time ball is an old fashioned but accurate time signalling device. It consists of a large painted wooden or metal ball that is mounted on a tower or high building. At exactly 13:00 the ball drops to signal the time. They were used to signal accurate time to ships and for captains to set their chronometers by. The phrase “keep your eye on the ball” comes from the practice of watching the ball and setting a ships chronometer accordingly, which is essential in determining longitude and navigating successfully. The time ball was an independent, consistent and unchanging source of time by which all passing vessels could reset their time and set a course. Without regularly checking the accuracy of the ships time, the vessel could easily drift off course and miss its destination or run into a difficult and dangerous course.
My prime reason to visit the Observatory was to see the Harrison H4 clock that led to the discovery of how to measure longitude. Unfortunately, only H1, H2, and H3 were displayed. H4, the winner of the prize of solving the riddle of Longitude, was in Scotland. It was hard to get decent pictures. The display cases reflect a lot of light and the lighting is very poor.The timekeeping displays are in the Flamsteed House atop the Observatory Hill in Greenwich.
Here is H1
The pictures of H2 were awful. But I got some of H3.
Only the plaque was there for H4
SORRY , I apparently hit a limit on the number of photos I can post in one day. I will finish this tomorrw, when I am allowed back on the Forum.
I will leave you with a comment from a real expert here on the Forum. Adrian sent me this email after I copied him on an email of the whole post.Dear Bill:You do know that long before the watch industry was upcoming in Switzerland, the British built excellent watches and clocks.The most important inventions in watchmaking were nearly all developed in Great Britain.The Royal Observatory in Kew was considered the most accurate in measuring the time and the ratings of watches and chronometers by the Kew observatory was the best and most severe you could get.IWC sent many of its pocket watches to Kew, although there was an Observatory in Geneva and Neuchatêl.The ratings of the British indicated that some Swiss watches were excellent and this was the reason that they used the IWC Mk 11 as a navigation watch and the cal. 71 and 52SC for their deck watches.So there is a close relation between Greenwich and IWC!Regards,Adrian.
