So we went to Greenwich (pronounced GREH-nich) and toured the Royal Observatory. Although the place is most well known for Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or UTC), that was one of many of the things the observatory had in their museum. The museum included an interesting exhibit on the history of watches. Thanks to Mr. Perkin's 10th grade discrete math class, I remembered that knowing the exact time was useful to finding one's longitutde - a feat that was very difficult back in the day. Anyway, they had some really interesting watches and clocks from the 16th century or so forward. The guy that made a watch that worked at sea (pendulums don't work so a grandfather clocks - the first accurate clocks - were out of the question) made over £20,000 from the Royal Observatory - quite a sum two hundred years ago.
We were able to stand on the prime meridian, although the place next to the cool plaque had a very long line to it and we wanted to enjoy the day a bit more, so we just took a picture from over the door. It was an interesting day, and a great break from the city - Greenwich is about 30 minutes by light rail and, although you can see the city skyline, it's a quieter village still within Greater London.
No comments:
Post a Comment