A week passed after seeing Bev and Alan in Haworth, so Bill and I made our way down to London to spend another few days with them before they flew back home. One of the top agenda items was going to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, where the Prime Meridian is located and where Greenwich mean time was established.
The Royal Observatory is about an hour away and 3 tube changes from our hotel, so, not wanting to waste that much time in the morning, we just hailed a taxi and in 35 minutes we were deposited right in front of the observatory around the time it opened.
Since we arrived early enough, we had plenty of time to take each other's photos at the Prime Meridian, set up for just such a thing. Later in the day we noticed that a line had formed and people were having to take quick photos and move along.
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| Divided by a hemisphere |
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| East? West? I never know which direction I'm pointing |
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| Western Hemisphere vs Eastern Hemisphere |
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| 0* lattitude |
And, riffing on the whole Southern hemisphere toilet flushing debate, Bill wondered if you pee'd on the Prime Meridian, would it always flow to the West, or to the East? :-)
Moving on from good, old-fashioned toilet humor, the view from the top of the hill the Royal Observatory sits atop is pretty spectacular!
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| Bill and Bev, braving the wind |
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| The trail to the observatory |
But the piece de resistance at the Royal Observatory is the museum of all things astronomically historical.The observatory was created around 1670, thanks to King Charles' II's French mistress who told him about the study of moons to determine longitude. Charles II never visited the observatory, but his interest in how science could benefit his country meant they had his continued support. The museum had lots of antique celestial science equipment, including the antique precision clock movement (below) owned by the first royal astronomer, John Flamsteed. The case for the clock movement is lost to history because John Flamsteed's widow took the case after his passing in a fit of spite.
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| Historical science-y thing-a-ma-bob |
Years ago I purchased a book for Bill (per his request) on the scientific challenges determining longitude while at sea. In 1714 the Royal Observatory offered £20,000 of prize money (several million in today's terms) to anyone in England who could solve the problem. Bill relayed the story explained in the book to me, how an uneducated (but extremely smart) man named John Harrison spent his entire life trying, and eventually succeeding in solving the mystery.
As I remember it, the story detailed how back in the 1700s and earlier you needed to know exactly what time it was in order to determine exactly where you were in the sea, and since all clocks then worked via pendulum, and a pendulum and a rocking boat were not friends, knowing what time it was at sea was virtually impossible. John Harrison worked to solve this problem over four prototypes and more than 30 years. He eventually solved the problem of longitude and also created the world's first precision watch. He was an old man by the time he was awarded the prize money, but he solved the problem, became a very wealthy man, and his name will be known for a long, long time. Well, at least amongst the science-y geek people!
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| John Harrison's first attempt at maritime clock |
I tell you that whole story in an attempt to get you to realize how excited Bill was when he saw that the Royal Observatory had not one, not two, not three, BUT ALL FOUR of the John Harrison prototypes that solved the problem of longitude. He was a very happy camper!
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| Goodbye, Prime Meridian! |
PS Bill wanted me to be sure to explain that John Harrison's precision clock still is the basis for navigation today, including the GPS in your smartphone!
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