Stories from the stores

Category: Time

Electric time

May 10th, 2010 | by | time, transport

May
10

This month marks the hundredth anniversary of radio time signals. These days, we’re used to the familiar sound of the six pips on the BBC, and we can buy cheap quartz clocks and watches that get magically set right every day by distant transmitters, such as the British service from Cumbria.

Junghans 'Mega 1' radio-controlled wristwatch, 1990 (Science Museum / Science & Society)

Whilst experimental radio time transmissions started in the late nineteenth century, it was in May 1910 that Paris’s Eiffel Tower was used to broadcast the world’s first official regular radio time signal (more in Peter Galison’s excellent book).

Eiffel Tower sheet music, c.1888 (Science Museum / Science & Society)

Time-by-radio is just one aspect of a revolution in timekeeping that’s taken place over 150 years - the application of electricity.

Electric horology has had a huge impact on all walks of life, from marine navigation to domestic clocks, scientific measurement to clocking-on at work.

'Synchronome' electric master clock, 1930s (Science Museum / Science & Society)

And, as technologies like mobile telephony and satellite navigation converge in consumer kit we can buy on the high street, the future’s looking bright for electric time.

'Navstar' GPS navigation satellite, 1986 (NASA / Science & Society)

I’m chairing the fourth annual Greenwich Time Symposium next month, on Saturday 12 June, at the National Maritime Museum, in association with the Electrical Horology Group.

We’ll be exploring the theme of ‘Electric Time’ – at sea, at work, in the lab, in everyday life and in the future. There’s lots more information here.

Tickets are just £8 for the day, or £6 if you’re a member of the Antiquarian Horological Society. Maybe see you there…

No Comments »

Station clock meets its Waterloo

March 31st, 2010 | by | art, puns, time, transport

Mar
31

No sooner do I write a blog about the symbolism of Waterloo’s station clock than it gets taken out of service for a refurbishment!

Waterloo station clock under repair, London, 25 March 2010 (David Rooney)

The concourse underneath the Waterloo clock has become an iconic meeting-place, a focal point amidst the hurry of the station, as shown in Terence Cuneo’s dramatic painting:

Waterloo station, 1967 (Science Museum / Science & Society)

Now, for a few weeks, time stands still for the station’s passengers.

Waiting under the Waterloo station clock, 25 March 2010 (David Rooney)

Railways run on time. In the early days, time was a life-saver – literally – as trains used the tracks on a time-share arrangement. The wrong time on the guard’s watch could kill.

Railway guard's watch and railway timetable, 19th century (NRM / Science & Society)

Nowadays, the railways get their time from a constellation of US military satellites (the same ones that tell you where to go while driving), or through a radio signal broadcast from Anthorn, a remote spit of land on the Cumbria coast.

The Cumbrian signal is Britain’s official national time signal. It’s called MSF and it’s run for the UK’s National Physical Laboratory by VT Communications, part of a firm that used to be called Vosper Thornycroft. I’ve mentioned them before. They’ve a long history of shipbuilding.

And they’ve just merged with Babcock, a company that started life making marine steam boilers. The MSF time signal and its predecessors began as an Admiralty service for British naval officers to check their chronometers at sea.

Transport and time – two stories intertwined. But I recommend you take your own watch to Waterloo for the next few weeks…

No Comments »

Quartz crystals in the captain’s cabin

February 1st, 2010 | by | time, transport, water transport

Feb
01

Last week I showed you the Rolex wristwatch that went seven miles down to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, in the Pacific Ocean, in 1960. Let’s stay with the nautical theme with this marine chronometer:

Patek Philippe quartz marine chronometer (David Rooney)

Chronometers, as I’ve said before, were the timekeeping devices carried on board every ship from about 1810 to the 1980s to help navigate. The Royal Observatory Greenwich is the place to go for the whole chronometer story, but we too have some rather nice ones in our Measuring Time gallery.

Science Museum 'Measuring Time' gallery (David Rooney)

Most ships navigate using GPS these days, but I know quite a few amateur and recreational sailors who still navigate with the chronometer method. They tend to use their wristwatch, because modern quartz watches keep time just fine for longitude purposes.

The chronometer I just showed you (by luxury Swiss watchmakers Patek Philippe, whose remarkable factory in Geneva I once had the pleasure of visiting) is one of a small number of quartz versions produced in the 1970s and 1980s. They were more accurate than their mechanical counterparts, but were often boxed to look similar. Their days were numbered, though, as GPS started to take off.

But the maritime world is getting increasingly concerned about the vulnerability of GPS to jamming. Last year, a major exercise off the coast of Tynemouth took place to demonstrate how many systems could be affected in the event of hostile GPS signal jamming. This parliamentary debate shows how worrying this is – definitely a story to watch.

No Comments »

Navigating through time

September 29th, 2009 | by | time, transport, water transport

Sep
29

Since about 1800, maritime navigation has relied on super-accurate timekeeping. Recently this has involved radio time signals beamed down from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, but for the bulk of the period, ship masters have navigated using the chronometer. These are very accurate portable timekeepers carried on the ship, providing a reference to compare against local time.

The difference between the two times is equivalent to the east-west distance between the two places. That’s longitude, and it was a real devil to find before the chronometer was developed. One of the most notable chronometer-making firms celebrates its 175th birthday this year. Founded in 1834, the Charles Frodsham company is still going strong today.

Back in the day, they worked in partnership with the Astronomer Royal at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on high-tech timekeeping research projects that saved countless lives at sea. About to go back on display in our newly-refurbished Measuring Time gallery is this top-quality example of Charles Frodsham’s early work – a lovely 1840s pocket chronometer:

Pocket chronometer by Arnold and Frodsham, Science Museum collection (credit: David Rooney)

Pocket chronometer by Arnold and Frodsham, Science Museum collection (credit: David Rooney)

Now, they’re developing a new form of mechanical wristwatch which will be built entirely at their premises in Sussex. I visited them last week. Their skill and passion is remarkable, blending old-school watchmaking skills with the latest sophisticated design processes and highly complex mechanical manufacturing methods. We’ve always been good in this country at technical design and innovation, and I saw no end of that out in Sussex last week.

Happy 175th birthday!

4 Comments »

Newer Posts