1/1/22 Report - Happy New Year! History of the New Year Ball and The Greenwich Observatory. Exploring Detecting Issues Through TV.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

New Year Ball.
Source: SpiritDaily (link below)

While dropping the ball is generally not thought of as a good thing, it has become the center of a big celebration in New York every year.  The ball drop has interesting roots in nautical history.

Dropping balls to signify a specific moment in time actually dates back to the early 19th century. According to the official Times Square website, a time-ball was installed at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, in 1833. The ball would drop every day at 1 o’clock, allowing nearby boats to synchronize their timing instruments. These time balls soon become common at naval academies and observatories and eventually made their way to the United States. The first-time ball dropped in Times Square in 1907. According to History.com, the first-time ball was built by New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs, who had been denied fireworks permit for the new year’s celebration. Times Square had become the focal point of the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations starting in 1904.

Source: How Dropping Ball Started (spiritdaily.org)

As Europeans took to the seas to explore the world and trade with other countries, astronomical information of sufficient quantity and accuracy to aid navigation, cartography and timekeeping was needed, including working out how to measure longitude.

Astronomy, navigation and cartography were key to Britain's seafaring ambitions. In 1674, Charles II appointed a Royal Commission to look into how the country could realise this potential.

Charles reportedly called for immediate action and on the same day John Flamsteed was named ‘astronomical observator’...

Greenwich Observatory
Source: Spacetourismguide.com

The project was notable for the speed in which it happened, and for the small budget with which it was achieved. At 3.14pm on 10 August 1675, the first Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Observatory and he moved in less than a year later on 10 July 1676 with his two servants to begin his observations in earnest. A total of £520.45 was spent on construction, with costs being kept down by using recycled materials...

Here is that link.

History of the Royal Observatory | Royal Museums Greenwich (rmg.co.uk)

I often say something to the effect that you can only be as precise as you are willing to be imprecise.  That might sound non-sensical, but it seems true to me.   If you think about it, there is always a point at which you stop and accept a number as precise and correct.  That is true when you give your weight, height, or the time of day, to use just a few of the more obvious exmaples

Here is what Wikipedia says about how Greenwich Mean Time is calculated

Because of Earth's uneven angular velocity in its elliptical orbit and its axial tilt, noon (12:00:00) GMT is rarely the exact moment the Sun crosses the Greenwich Meridian and reaches its highest point in the sky there. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, a discrepancy described by the equation of time. Noon GMT is the annual average (i.e. "mean") moment of this event, which accounts for the word "mean" in "Greenwich Mean Time"...

So the precise Greenwich Mean Time, which sounds so exacting and official, is actually a calculated mean, or average.

I'm very tempted to get into operationism and probablility theory here but will avoid it, so I'll stop here.

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I watched the first few episodes of the Detectorists TV show on YouTube.  I get a lot of good laughs from it, but although the show is a sitcom, you can tell that there definitely are experienced detectorists among the writers. 

I think you'll get a lot of laughs out of the first three minutes of the first episode.  Here is the link.

Detectorists Season 1 Episode 1 - YouTube

Spoiler alert: A fellow is detecting in the middle of a large open field, digs up a pull tab, which he inspects with a jeweler's loop, and pronounces what I presume to be the year and make, and then bags the tab and pockets it.  Humor must have some basis in truth, and to me, that was funny.

One thing I like about the show is you can see how the Brits view the Portable Antiquities Scheme and some of the other issues they deal with which are not so common in our experience.  The Portable Antiquities Scheme seems like a good thing in some ways, but you can get a better feel for how it works and is viewed in actual practice from watching this sitcom.

You'll see how some characters attempt to use the PAS against other detectorists, as one group threatens to tell the authorities the other group found unreported antiquities.

You'll see how detectorists attempt to win favor from landowners to gain exclusive permission to hunt particular fields.

The show also does an excellent job of presenting existential questions and philosophical issues.  In one episode a detectorist digs up a matchbox car (I think it was a corvette) and ponders what it is doing out in the middle of the field.  Soon thereafter his hunting partner, maybe fifty yards away, digs up another Matchbox car - a Ford.

As you can tell I enjoy the episodes.  You might too. 

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The tides are getting bigger.  Nothing bigger in the surf forecast than three to five feet.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net