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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Port Chalmers Time Ball
From: David Pike
Date: 2023 Jun 7, 13:15 -0700
From: David Pike
Date: 2023 Jun 7, 13:15 -0700
Frank. You asked So how were chronometers checked in most ports if not by time ball?
I don’t know about chronometers or other places but in London there was a family who made a living walking from client to client with a particularly accurate pocket watch in a silver case from 1836 to 1940. First the husband, then the wife, then their daughter. The ladies were known as ‘The Greenwich Time Lady’. Ruth Belville finally retired in 1940, aged 86, when the Second World War made it impossible to continue walking the streets safely. See: https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ruth-belville-the-greenwich-time-lady/ . DaveP
