NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: clock synchronization
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2004 Feb 5, 19:04 +0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2004 Feb 5, 19:04 +0000
Robin Birch said, regarding Greenwich observatory- >Originally they indicated 12:00 by dropping a signal ball on a post on the >roof (it's still there and I believe they still do this). This was visible >from most of the anchorages in the Thames until you got to Tower Bridge and >so ships could set their clocks to 12:00. Not "originally": The observatory had been going for about 150 years before the time-ball was instituted in 1833. And not at 12:00, but at 1 pm GMT, to allow navigators to do their normal noonday business beforehand. George. ================================================================ contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. ================================================================
