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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Royal Observatory
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Established by *Charles II at Greenwich in 1675. The astronomer John *Flamsteed was instructed to set about 'rectifying the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting the art of navigation'. This royal request for the much desired longitude led ultimately to the *Greenwich meridian and *Greenwich Mean Time.
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The building, by Wren, was ready for occupation in 1676. It had a specially high ceiling in one room to accommodate pendulum clocks by Thomas *Tompion. The time ball on the roof was added in 1833; it drops down its mast at 1300 GMT each day, originally so that ships on the Thames could set their chronometers. In 1859 this control of the nation's time was extended when a telegraph line was run between Greenwich and *Big Ben for a twice-daily check on parliament's new clock. And in 1924 the Royal Observatory became responsible for the *pips on BBC radio.
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Meanwhile the polluted atmosphere and bright lights of London were making observation difficult. In 1948 the Royal Observatory began the process of moving to new premises in Herstmonceux, a 15C castle in East Sussex; in 1990 it moved again, to Cambridge. Its work is also carried out from an observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The original buildings at Greenwich are open to the public as part of the *National Maritime Museum.
An independent Royal Observatory in Edinburgh was founded in 1818 by the Astronomical Institution and was given a royal charter in 1822. Its main telescopes are sited now in Hawaii.
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