During Darwin's famous voyage aboard the Beagle, Captain Fitzroy had
22 chronometers aboard, no doubt to obtain accurate longitudes. This
seems pretty excessive and I'm wondering how many (or few) chronometers
would have reduced his time errors to an acceptable level. Any thoughts?
Poisson
Fitzroy was the geek of his time - he was rich enough to own 22 chronometers
and he was interested in everything - (especially meteorology - hence the
Shipping weather forecast zone called after his name and the Fitzroy Storm
Glass) A 'normal' naval ship in those days carried three chronometers
Dear Frank,
To add to Kevin's reply I have a contact at Greenwich Observatory who replied
to my amazement that there were that many chronometers on board, and said:
Dear Doug,
Yes there were that many, not all were government, if I remember properly 5
were Fitzroy's own, 2 were loaned by
To: Sundial sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 6:51 PM
Subject: time, off topic
During Darwin's famous voyage aboard the Beagle, Captain Fitzroy had 22
chronometers aboard, no doubt to obtain accurate longitudes. This seems
pretty excessive and I'm wondering how many (or few
Message text written by INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you are British Airways, the time is 0925 Zulu, and a jolly good
morning to you.
If you are United, it's about half past nine, and you all have a
nice day.
If you are Red Centre Air Services, it's almost the end of May, and
she'll be
