The Shepherd Gate Clock by A90Six
The Shepherd Gate Clock is mounted in the wall outside the Greenwich Observatory. It was the first clock to show Greenwich Mean Time to the public. It is a slave clock that keeps time by recieving electric (galvano-magnetic, as it was then called) pulses from a master clock in the Observatory. It has a twenty-four hour analogue dial with Roman Numerals and the addition of a zero (Romans did not use Zero)to mark midnight. With the coming of the railway, Sir George Airy wanted to standardise the many local times that were in use in the country at the time. In 1849, Charles Shepherd of 53 Leadenhall Street, London, had patented a system for controlling a network of Master and slave clocks using electricity. He had installed the Master, Slave Clocks and Time Ball at Greenwich by August 1852. The Slaves here worked with pulses received every second. Pulses were also sent to another Master at London Bridge which then passed them on at a lesser frequency to clocks all around the country. By 1866, time signals were being sent to Harvard University, USA, via transatlantic cable.
Comments
Fabulous clock image and interesting stat information to go with it… Brick work/treatment here equally nice.. :)
Thanks Lj! Its a piece of history stuck in a wall.
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
fantastic image and information,,,, well done
Thanks Wendy! Good to see you!
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
Brilliant, very old, never seen anything like this before hon xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Carlotta! Thought you were talking about me for a minute!
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
This s beautiful, Tony, and your treatment really suits the subject so well. A lovely bit of history. Agnes:))
Thanks Agnes! The clock was great, but the brickwork was a little dull so I played with it a little.
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
WOW!!!! hooooow interesting!!! I had NO IDEA any of that took place!!!! Soooo cool!!!! And … let us not overlook your fabulous photo!!!!! Wonderfully detailed!!!!! Great, great job!!!!!
Hi Lois! I thought that was a Woo Hoo and instead got blown away with a Wow How! Thank you so much!
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
that is so interesting, thanks for posting that info. The image has excellent detail. well done
Thanks Alf! It’s funny when you think GMT has only been around for about 150 years. Before that, a watch would have been pretty useless to anyone travelling with so many time changes every few miles East or West.
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
the colors… THE COLORS!!!
Thanks Izzy! I brought the colour out in the bricks as they were a bit dull in the orig. I thought 13:05:17 showed the hands off pretty well!
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
Oh, and look at the little heart pointer thingy. I love this.
Great image Tony!!
Thanks Gwenda!
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six
Wow…excellent capture Tony!
Thanks Béla!
*_:)_* Tony.
– A90Six