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Continental Connections
A few days ago, Simon, Becky and were guests of the Université de Lorraine for a conference organized by Martina Schiavon and Laurent Rollet on ‘Le Bureau des longitudes (1795-1930): contexte national...
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A Danish treat
Last year the Museum was lucky enough to be given a very rare book that shows how quickly the details of John Harrison’s sea-watch, H4, were disseminated around Europe. Entitled Historien af Mr...
View ArticlePlant portraits
A new year and a new acquisition! I’m excited to say I’ve made my first purchase for the museum, and bought one or two companions for our new Stubbs Kangaroo and Dingo. Richard and I have discussed...
View ArticleLong live the sextant!
They may not be the first words you’d expect to hear as a toast, but they were most appropriate on Tuesday night, which saw the launch of David Barrie‘s new book, Sextant. The book is both history and...
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Guest post: A pirate map
Daniel Lange, who is studying for a PhD on 17th-century piracy, has been looking into the story behind a book of maps captured in the 1680s. Among the many fascinating objects that are currently...
View ArticleLongitude on National Poetry Day 2014
We’ve had one poetic contribution on this blog recently with Isabel Rogers’ post about her award-winning poem, ‘John’s Curious Machines’. As it’s National Poetry Day today, I thought I’d take us back...
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Stones, Clocks and Stars
Despite the amount that we’ve managed to pack into Ships, Clocks and Stars, there are of course many stories and connections that we haven’t been able to include. I was delighted to be asked to write a...
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Solving Longitude: Jupiter’s Moons
There were many proposed solutions to the Longitude problem, as discussed in Ships, Clocks & Stars. One of the main contenders was using Jupiter’s Moons as a celestial clock – though particular...
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The 1707 Isles of Scilly Disaster – Part 1
The anniversaries of several important naval events take place in late October. Today, 22 October, is the anniversary of one of the British Navy’s greatest tragedies – the Isles of Scilly shipwreck of...
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The 1707 Isles of Scilly Disaster – Part 2
In my last post, I discussed some of the events surrounding one of the Navy’s great tragedies – the Isles of Scilly shipwreck of 1707 – and what might have caused it. In this post, I want to consider...
View ArticleIn your dictionary: the language of longitude
This appeared as a guest post by Katy for the OxfordWords blog run by Oxford Dictionaries … Words can be difficult and scary. Everyone has words that they can’t spell or can’t pronounce. I always say...
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(Re)Displaying longitude
This week’s blog comes from Louise Devoy, Curator of the Royal Observatory We’ve had a few months to refresh the Time and Longitude Gallery after the de-installation of Longitude Punk’d but it’s flown...
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