tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.comments2021-01-08T12:34:34.255+00:00Cosmic Diary: Greenwich 1894Rebekah Higgitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16872915215008730635noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-31348388327989402072012-12-04T00:49:02.968+00:002012-12-04T00:49:02.968+00:00Just found your post today. Thought I'd includ...Just found your post today. Thought I'd include my 'recent' awarded image as I produce very large pastel sketches from observation. markscosmiclighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04930048868411662838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-11836957516282995782010-01-04T14:59:43.692+00:002010-01-04T14:59:43.692+00:00My learned former colleague Graham Dolan has solve...My learned former colleague Graham Dolan has solved the Wightwick, Wolverhampton question. Christie, presumably with his son, must have been going to see his deceased wife's parents. Sir Alfred Hickman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Alfred_Hickman,_1st_Baronet) lived at Tinegar Hall, Wightwick, and was an MP for Wolverhampton and founder of the Staffordshire Steel Ingot & Iron Company. Violette Mary Hickman had married Christie in 1881 and died in 1888. She had two sons, one dying in infancy. The older, H.A.H. Christie, became a barrister and Captain in the Yeomanry.Rebekah Higgitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16872915215008730635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-85768777508965904752009-12-22T15:47:53.547+00:002009-12-22T15:47:53.547+00:00Thanks very much for this. The Royal Observatory w...Thanks very much for this. The Royal Observatory was home, of course, to one of the earliest time balls (see http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/the-greenwich-time-ball for Greenwich and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_ball for some of the others). Later in the century many were set up in city centres or shop windows, taking time either from Greenwich via the Post Office and Electric Telegraph Company. I don't have any specific information about the Wolverhampton time ball, though, and there's nothing in the Observatory's archives.Rebekah Higgitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16872915215008730635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-66986900101837808722009-12-22T13:15:39.508+00:002009-12-22T13:15:39.508+00:00The Mander family were certainly keen on matters a...The Mander family were certainly keen on matters astronomical. Charles Tertius had a purpose-built observatory set in a tower at the top of his house, the Mount, itself on the hightest part of the sandstone ridge of Tettenhall.<br />In 1887 he presented the town of Wolverhampton with a time ball, sited on the tallest building in the main square, activated when the Post Office supplied current from Greenwich at 10 a.m. every day, so that his fellow townsmen should know the correct time. Do you know anything about these time balls?<br />Nicholas ManderUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17865754996394684493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-9640131328270357802009-12-09T08:32:14.371+00:002009-12-09T08:32:14.371+00:00Christie was a trustee of the Greenwich Blue Coat ...Christie was a trustee of the Greenwich Blue Coat School. IT has been founded in 1700 by a group of ladies led by Mrs Margaret Flamsteed, wife of the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed. It appears that every Astronomer Royal right up to Sir Harold Spencer Jones was associated with the school. Spencer Jones was chair of governors for several years. In the 1860s Sir George Biddell Airy was a trustee who was very involved in school affairs. He published a "Statement on the History and Position of the Blue Coat Girls' School, Greenwich" in 1867.<br /><br />Further details available from www.bluecoathistory.co.uk<br /><br />Mike Leader (Governor repsonsible for Archives at Blackheath Bluecoat School)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05544005010356168678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-55941613746651824862009-11-24T09:55:34.731+00:002009-11-24T09:55:34.731+00:00superb photo. Thanks for posting itsuperb photo. Thanks for posting itGervase Crispinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01976090715550477327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-67267369574254431042009-11-24T09:54:45.820+00:002009-11-24T09:54:45.820+00:00from a Study in Scarlet:
"Sherlock Holmes his...from a Study in Scarlet:<br />"Sherlock Holmes his limits... knowledge of astronomy -- nil"Gervase Crispinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01976090715550477327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-53114406152470042972009-05-12T17:13:00.000+01:002009-05-12T17:13:00.000+01:00Celebrating the birth of John Russell Hind: May 12...Celebrating the birth of John Russell Hind: May 12, 1823 – December 23, 1895 at the Today in Astronomy blog. I used your picture and linked to your blog.<br /><br />http://todayinastronomy.blogspot.com/2009/05/may-12-john-russell-hind.html<br /><br />I love your unique way of sharing some astronomy history!<br /><br />-MarkLunar Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05748030951536447210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-64409309794537954742009-05-11T14:15:00.000+01:002009-05-11T14:15:00.000+01:00Ernest Wentworth Buller, MRAI, MRUSI, MIEE publish...Ernest Wentworth Buller, MRAI, MRUSI, MIEE published 'Semi-Azimuths, a new method of Navigation' in 1893, with an article about his method appearing in ‘Nature’ in January 1894. This described Buller as ‘equally earnest in denouncing the shortcomings of the existing systems of navigation, and in advocating the merits of his own’.<br /><br />Reviewing Buller’s pamphlet in ‘The Observatory’ in July 1893, George Pulsford of the Greenwich Hospital School commented that ‘the assertions of the Preface and in the body of the work show a limited experience of actual navigation’. While complimentary about much of Buller’s working, Pulsford felt that his ‘levity … as to Special Tables ’ was ‘quite out of place’ and was not impressed by Buller’s poor opinion of navigators.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11714676996213384346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-38099266574522820062009-03-05T09:29:00.000+00:002009-03-05T09:29:00.000+00:00Fortunately, I think not - the building was revamp...Fortunately, I think not - the building was revamped and reopened in 2007 and I don't think that anything too suspect was found.Rebekah Higgitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16872915215008730635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-41997204317005674292009-03-04T17:56:00.000+00:002009-03-04T17:56:00.000+00:00Hope that fireproof cement isnt asbestos (highly l...Hope that fireproof cement isnt asbestos (highly likely!)Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07514540415458757660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4205617484767215027.post-30862022637899096542009-02-06T10:31:00.000+00:002009-02-06T10:31:00.000+00:00Interesting to see what real wintry weather used t...Interesting to see what real wintry weather used to be like! Wonder if we'll ever see conditions like that again in the UK?square729waxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11813603052732237981noreply@blogger.com