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SUMMARY:Harrison and Burgess - Mechanisms of Time
DESCRIPTION:Never slowing\nNever stopping\nAlways flowing\nMoment by moment \n  \nChronologically speaking\, this talk is going to be really only a very small part of the “timey wimey…” concept. Extremely small and brief. Douglas Adams dreamt up the concept of the Total Perspective Vortex to blow both of Zaphod‘s minds into insignificance merely by experiencing the size of the Universe and Creation. Would Zaphod have survived the added dimension of the mind numbing vastness and extreme range of scales experienced for time?… \nTime really is VAST… So utterly vast… And so infinitesimally detailed… That no more need be said about that until a few beers later 😉 \nInstead\, we shift to one miniscule aspect that in itself has consumed lifetimes and cost many lives. And that one miniscule aspect is… \nThe accurate marking of time by a pendulum under the influence of gravity\n \n“Tick tock\, goes the clock…” must be one of the most well worn timely associations known and experienced for the post-Galileo and pre-Digital-Watches era. Since then\, time moves on\, and for our more recent times post-Hitch-Hiker’s-Guide-To-The-Galaxy giggles\, the experience of “clockwise” and “anti-clockwise” is already being forgotten to become an anachronism of language… \nThis small part of marking the passage of time began when some of Galileo’s ‘conspirators’ endured a mind-numbing (or hypnotic?!) marathon over a continuous 24-hour period counting every swing of their test pendulum to calibrate the pendulum’s oscillation against the time marked by one rotation of the Earth. (Later\, the Church imprisoned Galileo\, but that’s for another time…) \nMore recently\, Harrison embarked on a lifelong voyage to greatly improve the measure of time with his famous series of ‘regulators’. Near the end of his time\, he wrote a great rambling monologue of his ideas (pdf) which over a century later were explored by Burgess. Two Burgess designs were subsequently made following the best of Harrison’s ideas and experience. The first was displayed\, vandalized\, abandoned\, left in the elements to corrode\, repaired\, and abandoned again in a shopping centre to unknowingly accurately amuse time wasting shoppers. The second was partially made\, left to gather dust\, resurrected decades later\, and is presently in the basement of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The Burgess Clock B is listed as being\, for the time being\, the most accurate pendulum clock operating in free air ever made. So far… \n \nThe accurate marking of time by pendulum\, in free air\, on earth\n \n \nCan the lifetime achievements of Harrison and Burgess\, spanning multiple centuries\, be bettered by this evening’s design? \nTime to find out? \nAll at our usual time and space as detailed below (7:30pm at the Organ Grinder). \n  \nAll welcome 🙂 \nSee ya there!\nMartin \n  \n  \nAs for what is time…\nGareth Lancaster\, Fizzy Funny Fuzzy \nTick tock\, tick tock\nGoes the old grandfather clock\nTick tock\, tick tock\nIt never ever ever stops.\nSwing swing\, swing swing\nIt really is a wondrous thing\nSwing swing\, swing swing\nI’m waiting for the clock to ting.\nDing dong\, ding dong\nNow it plays its little song\nDing dong\, ding dong\nEvery hour all day long. \n  \n(Reddit time poem challenge) \nTick tock\, goes the clock.\nAlways running\, never stops.\nSeconds pass by on the hands\,\nNumerous as the shifting sands.\nEndless\, warped\, but whole it stays.\nEternal passage\, all obey.\nGrowth and wisdom\, eventual age\,\nSpecks like nothing on eternity’s page.\nExplosive beginning\, when will it end?\nImpervious to all man’s attempts to bend.\nTick tock\, goes the clock.\nAwaiting the moment time finally stops. \n  \nMark Gatiss (Dr Who script) \nTick tock goes the clock\nAnd what then shall we see?\nTick tock until the day\nThat thou shalt marry me\n \nTick tock goes the clock\nAnd what now shall we play?\nTick tock goes the clock\nNow Summer’s gone away?\n \nTick tock goes the clock\nAnd all the years they fly\nTick tock and all too soon\nYou and I must die\n \nTick tock goes the clock\nHe cradled and he rocked her\nTick tock goes the clock\nEven for the Doctor… \n  \n  \nAnd for your amusement\, this is an example of what happens for a double pendulum: \n  \n \n  \nAnd here is something that just shouldn’t be done with a triple pendulum! 🙂 \n  \nYouTube: Triple Pendulum on a Cart \n  \nAlbert Einstein: \n“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” \n  \nThe Tenth Doctor: \nPeople assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually from a non-linear\, non-subjective viewpoint it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey… stuff. \n  \nPhew! \n  \nBack in the time of Harrison\, sometimes such was the exasperation of advancement (Harrison\, CSM translation): \n… The learned part of the world (through Mr Graham) has become so stupidly confident in this nonsense\, it can hardly be persuaded that anything else could ever be better. Thus far\, the public (unlike myself) are not aware of anything else and no proper steps have been taken to inform them; they may well remain in the dark (or at least in a mist). \n‘..whenas\, it has ever been surprising to me\, how such stupidity could take place and spread itself in the world; for the first time I saw Mr Graham and he shewed it me\, I thought\, that either he must be out of his senses\, or I must be so!’ …\n \nTick-tock-clunk-clang!? \n  \nAn excellent summary of the available documents by John Harrison is given by: \nbob holmström – www.hsn161.com – John Harrison – documents \nMultiple versions of his “CSM” monologue “A description concerning such mechanism as will afford a nice\, or true measureation of time; together with some account of the longitude by the moon as also an account of the discovery of the scale of musik by John Harrison inventer of the time-keeper for the longitude at sea – London 1775” can be found: \n\nPeter Hastings transcription (pdf)\nAnthony Zwygart facsimile edition copy (pdf)\nDavid Heskin translation (pdf)\namazon.co.uk ‘CSM’ Paperback – 6 Aug 2010\n\nTime to advance… \n 
URL:https://nlug.ml1.co.uk/event/harrison-and-burgess-mechanisms-of-time
LOCATION:The Organ Grinder\, 21 Alfreton Road\, Canning Circus\, Nottingham\, NG7 3JE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Talks
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