On the subject of the pips…
The pips were introduced in 1924 as a collaboration between the BBC and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. At a later date it was necessary to decide who ‘owned’ the pips. To my everlasting delight the compromise reached was that the Royal Observatory, Greenwich owned the pips and the BBC owned the spaces between the pips.
(If not true… who cares. Smiles).
I don’t think many people realised how important those pips were. Before satellite positioning, accurate time signals were vital to locate your position in remote locations.
You could position yourself by observing the stars but as they continually move relative to the Earth it was vital that you knew the exact time of observation.
And sadly, those same sats and other things have made them meaningless now. I sit here in the kitchen and hear the pips in the next room, then 2 or 3 minutes later, the same pips here. 