East is East, and West is West
But sometimes the 'twain do meet ....
Mrs. Werbenmanjensen straddles the Prime Meridian.
Tuesday was my birthday, which I share with Jesse James and King Louis XIV of France. Mrs. Werbenmanjensen took the day off and gave me the best gift of all, which was to spend the day with me, so we decided to take a boat cruise down the Thames to Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian, the Royal Observatory, and the birthplace of time.
(A brief digression, my father is an Amateur Radio enthusiast, and one of my more distinct memories growing up was of him periodically tuning into a broadcast of the U.S. atomic clock in Boulder to reset his watch on the exact time as coordinated worldwide. It was the sort of thing that fed my family's near-religious devotion to punctuality--we never arrived anywhere later than 10 minutes early. When catching flights, it tended to be close to two hours early, back in the days when airport security consisted of an eyeball check. I've mostly broken myself of this, except when it comes to catching flights. If I had a better camera, the above photo would demonstrate that my watch, which also is set to Greenwich Mean Time, accessed online, has lost only two seconds since I last set it. But this, as I said, is a digression.)
Set up on top of a hill in Greenwich, the Royal Observatory gives you some fine views of London ...
... but it's just as fascinating inside. Without a standard time or zero east-west point, navigation was challenging for mariners. North-south was easier: You had a natural zero line in the equator and could measure your distance north or south based on the angle of the sun. Stars were helpful, but still many ships, seamen, and cargoes were lost to an inability to determine east-west coordinates.
Enter the Royal Observatory. The English simply decided that the zero line, the Prime Meridian, would be an imaginary line cutting through the Royal Observatory. Meanwhile, work went on to find timepieces that mariners could use to keep time at the Prime Meridian to help them figure out how far east or west they were.
This ball was reset at the bottom of the spire at 1 p.m. each day. From the Thames, mariners could look for the ball and reset their watches by the ball on their way down the river to the open ocean.
And speaking of the river cruise:
The Tower Bridge from downriver
The White Tower at the Tower of London
Not a happy way to enter the Tower. Those who did often lost their heads.
And finally, a few film clips taken with my mobile phone. Some of them contain narration from our happy crew. (Others contain chatter from umpteen school groups.)
Mrs. Werbenmanjensen straddles the Prime Meridian.
Tuesday was my birthday, which I share with Jesse James and King Louis XIV of France. Mrs. Werbenmanjensen took the day off and gave me the best gift of all, which was to spend the day with me, so we decided to take a boat cruise down the Thames to Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian, the Royal Observatory, and the birthplace of time.
(A brief digression, my father is an Amateur Radio enthusiast, and one of my more distinct memories growing up was of him periodically tuning into a broadcast of the U.S. atomic clock in Boulder to reset his watch on the exact time as coordinated worldwide. It was the sort of thing that fed my family's near-religious devotion to punctuality--we never arrived anywhere later than 10 minutes early. When catching flights, it tended to be close to two hours early, back in the days when airport security consisted of an eyeball check. I've mostly broken myself of this, except when it comes to catching flights. If I had a better camera, the above photo would demonstrate that my watch, which also is set to Greenwich Mean Time, accessed online, has lost only two seconds since I last set it. But this, as I said, is a digression.)
Set up on top of a hill in Greenwich, the Royal Observatory gives you some fine views of London ...
... but it's just as fascinating inside. Without a standard time or zero east-west point, navigation was challenging for mariners. North-south was easier: You had a natural zero line in the equator and could measure your distance north or south based on the angle of the sun. Stars were helpful, but still many ships, seamen, and cargoes were lost to an inability to determine east-west coordinates.
Enter the Royal Observatory. The English simply decided that the zero line, the Prime Meridian, would be an imaginary line cutting through the Royal Observatory. Meanwhile, work went on to find timepieces that mariners could use to keep time at the Prime Meridian to help them figure out how far east or west they were.
This ball was reset at the bottom of the spire at 1 p.m. each day. From the Thames, mariners could look for the ball and reset their watches by the ball on their way down the river to the open ocean.
And speaking of the river cruise:
The Tower Bridge from downriver
The White Tower at the Tower of London
Not a happy way to enter the Tower. Those who did often lost their heads.And finally, a few film clips taken with my mobile phone. Some of them contain narration from our happy crew. (Others contain chatter from umpteen school groups.)
posted by Smitty Werbenmanjensen at 5:31 PM
6 Comments:
What a great way to celebrate the your birthday and the passage of time! I've been meaning to tell you that I have been reading some G. K. Chesterton short stories set in London, and was excited when the detective got on the bus at Tufnel Park, rode past Camden Town, and ended up catching the criminal at Hampstead Heath! Having just been there, I could actually picture his approach as he apprehended the criminal.
Do my feet look fat in that photo? :)
And Smitty, I'd like to think I had something to do with downgrading your obsession with punctuality to a mere anxiety...
Is there something wrong with being punctual?
No. It's not a moral (right vs. wrong) issue. It's just that being obsessively punctual (i.e. leaving 40 minutes early for a movie that's 5 minutes away) is irritating. I like my trains to run on time as much as anyone. I just think being too early (which sometimes includes being punctual, if you know what I mean) is a waste of time. It's the Mediterranean in me.
Hmmm. I think I understand what you mean. Punctual means on-time, not early or late. I am married to a man whose mother apparently caused the family to be late to everything, and, consequently, he prefers to leave excessively early for things. I have sometimes resorted to doing things like deciding last minute to change out my shoes, in order to avoid leaving too early! It is embarrassing to arrive at a party 15 minutes early and find the host still in the shower!
Sounds like a fun birthday! Speaking of punctuality, I am sitting in Darwin, Australia airport where my parents and husband and I arrived about 6 hours before our flight... but keep in mind that our flight leaves at 1:30am, Darwin has about as much nightlife as the pop. 1800 small town where I grew up, and my husband is one of those diamond members with airline miles that got us all 4 in to the lovely Qantas Club with free drinks, food, internet access & comfy chairs.
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