Posted by Alan Hakim on October 27, 2007 at 11:20:23 from 213.166.17.12 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re:Sextant, was Time Ball, was Signal Stations posted by Ed Kiser on October 26, 2007 at 22:21:51:
When the TARS Literary Weekend was held at Greenwich University in 2003, we all trooped out from the lecture-room to watch the timeball rise (slowly) and fall (with dignified haste) on the Observatory up the hill from the college.
A picture of the assembled observers appeared in a TARS magazine at the time.
As for sextants, A P Herbert wrote a very amusing novel about 50 years ago, called Number Nine. Two characters were retired naval officers who lived within sight of each other in the country. Every day, each of them plotted the location of his house and signalled it to his friend. The results varied widely from day to day ....