Your daily fact-of-delight

[desperance]

It was the coming of the railways that dragged Greenwich Mean Time all across the UK; I knew this. (People kept missing trains, because they were judging by local time while the train-drivers ran on London time, and they could easily be a crucial ten minutes apart.)

Conservative curmudgeons in various cities resisted the imposition of "railway time" for as long as they could; I knew that too.

For a while, the clock on Tom Tower had two minute hands, five minutes apart: one set to Oxford time and one to railway time. How could I not have known this? Oxford is my home town; I grew up hearing the hundred-and-one strokes just after nine every night. I won't say they lulled me to sleep, 'cos I was a bad sleeper already and, y'know, bells. Not necessarily conducive. But. I am astonished. And now better informed. I shall add it to my catalogue of Oxford anecdotes instanter, and sound like I have known it all my life.

Also, I am thinking story. A clock that tells two different times at once? That is so science-fictional... (Did you know the word "scientist" was not coined till 1840?)

[It has wisely been said, "Chaz hates research, but loves finding stuff out."]

Comments

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

Christ Church cathedral, Oxford, still runs on Oxford time rather than GMT - so services start five minutes later than your watch would indicate.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. Really? I didn't know that either. Presumably that's why the 101-bell curfew strikes at five past nine...

Thank you!

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Come to Morpeth and count the minutes on the tower clock. That's right. Four. Because it was originally divided into quarter hours, a long, long time ago.

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

I think "natural philosopher" sounds way more sexy than "scientist". Bah, 1840 word coiners!

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

You're entitled to your opinion, with which I sympathize to a degree. But the 20th Century probably would have steamrollered that into "Enpees" or something similarly truncated. "Natfils," perhaps.

[fatbaldguy60.livejournal.com]

I may have read that book recently. Is that the one base on the BBC or ITV series? It was very interesting, and one I was happy to see here in New Orleans.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's the one; and really, it got that far? *is impressed* I never know what Brit TV does or doesn't make it over, let alone the tie-in books... (But I enjoy Hart-Davis: he's superficial-but-right, acts as a useful key to context, drawing in what I do know and what I don't...)