This is a terrific thread. I have been to Greenwich too and also some of the
clock exhibits in London. There's a beautiful pendulum master and slave
clock set up in the British Museum, and there's an original huge Caesium
(British spelling!) frequency standard in the Kensington Science Museum.
The last time I was there in 2013 there was also a special feature
exhibition about Alan Turing and the Bletchley code breakers. I did pass
through Bletchley station on the train about 20 years ago when I was in the
UK but regrettably didn't have the time to stop there. I can recommend the
climb up the hill at Greenwich to anyone - it's definitely worth the effort.
They didn't allow photography of the Harrison clocks but I did manage to
sneak one or two before the minder got to me :-)
I'd love to have a genuine electro-optical speaking clock. There's one in
the Australian Telecom museum not far from where I live. There's also a
terrific display of a complete electromechanical telephone exchange
including a speaking clock in the telecommunications museum in Stockholm but
as I don't speak Swedish I couldn't understand what it was saying. I've
just finished making a speaking clock using more modern technology, it uses
a 30 year old speech synthesizer chip and sounds just like Stephen Hawking.
Morris
Melbourne, Australia
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2016 10:42:19 +1000
From: Jim Palfreyman <jim77...@gmail.com>
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
<time-nuts@febo.com>
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich
Speaking of "speaking clocks" - here's two photos of the ones that used to
be used in Australia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock#Australia
The top photo with rotating optical disks is a gorgeous piece of machinery.
The one below - I have one, and I keep it running.
:-)
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