This post is really a postscript for anyone who has read the fascinating book “Longitude”
The BBC transmits a very accurate time signal of 5 short bips and one longer bip every hour. The exact time is marked by the start of the 6th bip. You will have heard this but probably never noticed or understood it’s function. This used to be very important for a number of people especially sailors for navigation purposes.
I have recently noticed that if you get your time from a streaming service, using BBC Sounds for example, that time signal is always late. So when the BBC announces the 8 o’clock news it is actually the 8 and a bit news.
With modern satellite navigation systems, sailors no longer need accurate time. Why does the BBC continue with this archaic practice?
The Greenwich Time Signal is traditional, and the BBC is traditional so it stays I guess until there is a reason to stop. Between our different devices there can be up to 30seconds difference - which upsets the dog as he gets his dinner on the 6pm time signal.
Often when walking a stretch of the Lot just up from us, I hear the church clock at Livinhac-le-Haut striking the hour; about five minutes later one will hear the Flagnac one, the next village upriver. I like to imagine that for centuries each set of villagers believed that their time was the right one.
I read it many years ago, and the story is fascinating. I went to the Greenwich Museum to see the first four timepieces Harrison built and what surprised me was the size of the ‘pocket’ watch H4.
I was once invited by a survey instrument manufacturer to a select meeting at the Greenwich Observatory where a special viewing through the main telescope had been arranged. Unfortunately,on the night in question it was cloudy It was compensated by a viewing of the Harrison timepieces with an informed commentary.
Harrison’s first accurate clock was made from wood. The last address I had in UK was near to Nostel Priory close to where Harrison was born.
I’ve posted before, that prior to the invention of the telegraph, each village in France (and presumably in lots of other countries) effectively had its own time zone. With the coming of the railways, this became rather problematic and there were many train disasters in the period between the arrival of the public railways and the use of the telegraph to synchronise time.
It was compensated by a viewing of the Harrison timepieces with an informed commentary.
