Today was a bit more disappointing
than I wanted it to be. For our
British Culture class, we take a number of field study trips throughout the
city. Today, we went to the
Greenwich National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory to see the Prime
Meridian. I was really excited for this trip. I went there with my family back in
2004 and I don’t think I really appreciated what the entire museum was
about. I don’t want to really explain
everything about how cool this place is but here is the gist of it:
Back in the times when Western
Europe was still exploring and wondering what was on the other side of the
globe, and up until the late 1700s, they had a real issue figuring out what
longitude they were at. They
could figure out their latitude, but figuring out how far they had traveled was more of an issue. This made navigation an incredibly iffy process. For years, sailors had used stars and
the moon to determine longitude but, on a rocking ship, with potential for
cloud cover and a lot of room for mathematical error, this method wasn't very reliable. (This one captain’s calculations were
so off that his two-ship fleet ended up running aground and over 2000 sailors
died) This was a real problem, so
a council formed and offered a £20,000 prize to anyone who could solve the longitude
problem. This story is getting too
long already. |
| Two Hemispheres |
Enter John Harrison and his
clocks. While the rest of the
scientists were looking to astrology for the answers, Harrison was trying to
create a clock that could accurately keep time while aboard a ship. (Earlier
clocks would lose and gain huge amounts of time while on ships or just stop
working altogether) He was really
successful in this BUT the council kept screwing him over and making him go
through more and more trials to test his machines. After about 50 years of making 5 different clocks, he
finally had access to the full prize in his old age.
This clock gave the British Navy
and advantage over every other European nation and instead of using it; they
wasted everyone’s time by testing it over and over again. Every captain that had one of
Harrison’s clocks aboard wrote incredible recommendations for the device. There is a lot more to the story and it
actually gets really dramatic at times, so if you need a good, short, historic
read, pick up Longitude by Dave
Sobel. You won’t regret it.
 |
| Hopefully you can see the rainbow |
ANYWAYS, at the observatory, you
are supposed to be able to see the Harrison clocks. H-1, H-2, and H-3 are in
working condition, while the H-4 is still. Mainly, because it is so fine that it would eventually deteriorate
after constantly being wound and rewound.
I’m not sure where H-5 is.
BUT, you have to pay for the museum and that was not covered by the
class so no clock viewing for me.
Still, we found a place where we
could stand on the Prime Meridian without paying, which it’s pretty cool being
in two hemispheres at the same time.
Plus the view from the observatory was pretty incredible.
While I’m writing a blog I should
probably clear up something I mentioned in my last post. Yes, I joined a choir. Not just any choir, a Welsh choir. I’ve only been to one rehearsal but it
all seems really cool. Nicole and
I are the youngest, but not by much.
It’s an all women’s choir and most of them are Welsh. There is one other
American in the choir that we know of.
So far all the ladies are very nice and welcoming. In a few weeks we get to travel to
Wales for a competition alongside the men’s choir. I’m really glad I joined because even though it’s not the most
serious choir, they seem like a lot of fun and it’s really nice to have music
as a part of life again. I have
really missed singing.
I know I will have more to write
about that later on. Especially,
after the trip.
Cheers,
Janelle
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