Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal:'The Royal Observatory'

Images(2)

Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal:'The Royal Observatory'

AssociatedAssociated with Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Frogmore House, Windsor, England, 1900 - 1979)

Medallist John Pinches, Medallists

DateMay 2004

Object NameMedal

MediumSterling Silver

ClassificationsMedals

Dimensions44mm

AcquisitionPresented in 2004 by Dr Joan M Burrell.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS072500.16

Keywords

About MeLate in the 17th century the solving of the historic problem of navigation - the finding of any position on sea or land, east and west - took a step nearer solution when it was discovered that, theoretically, longitude could be determined by observing the positions of the moon against the background of the stars. But this could not be done in practice because neither the motion of the moon nor the positions of the stars were known sufficiently to make the method practical.

Nevertheless it was this theoretical discovery that led to the establishment of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, not for the pursuit of knowledge as an end in itself but for the very practical purpose of seeking to enable ships to establish their position at sea. To make this possible would greatly have increased the safety of navigation of merchant ships and the security of money invested in them and thus increased profitability. At the same time the warship would have been made a far more formidable and effective weapon.

The Observatory was established in Greenwich Park on the site of an old castle, and it comprised basically the living rooms of the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, with a splendid octagonal room, used for occasional observations and for ceremonial purposes. The actual observatory itself was, in fact, a small building at the bottom of the garden. For 200 years, as the buildings steadily grew in extent, the work of the Observatory was almost exclusively related to the needs of navigation. There were important by-products which made it a household name throughout the world.

These included the acceptance of the Meridian running through the Observatory as the basis of the world's time zones and the development of positional astronomy. Until the coming of the electric telegraph there was no standard time in England, each community kept its own local time by the sun. Once the electric telegraph followed the railways the time at Greenwich became standard and in 1884, at an international conference convened in Washington, the Meridian, passing through the centre of the transit instrument at Greenwich, became the basis of the international time system.

Today the buildings of the Old Royal Observatory are an integral part of the National Maritime Museum. In recent years they have been restored to their condition as at the time the principal work was done in them, and to walk through these magnificent displays is to walk through part of the history of science. Many of the original instruments are in their original positions and in addition to these there is a great collection of telescopes, clocks and other instruments.

The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea, John Pinches Medallists Ltd.