Re: Did you know? Watchmakers' extraordinary historic deeds


"the swisswatchguy"
> Let's have some Summer fun and try and collect
> interesting / amusing stories about watchmakers'
> extraordinary historic deeds.

Learning by doing

I've always liked the anecdote about John Harrison. He complained about
the weak motion of his rival's pendulums, and said he was able to make a
clock with a vigorous pendulum based on several years of experience in
his youth spent ringing the tower bell at his church.

An accurate watch is:

NOVICE: quartz watch < 1/4 sec/day
ACOLYTE: mechanical +- 3 sec day
WATCHMAKER: anything within a minute a day


Military Intelligence

The US air support for the Bay of Pigs invasion was an hour late,
supposedly due to a confusion over time zones, and then cancelled
entirely.

Idle thoughts of a genius

DaVinci was the first to realize that the period of a pendulum is
dependent on its length and not its amplitude while observing chandeliers
swaying in a sanctuary.


If it's the vernal equinox it must be March 21... or not; or 8 in 33 is
closer but confusing to the monks

The Gregorian reform was not the best solution to keeping the calendar
tied to the vernal equinox - and there is evidence that both Lilius and
Clavius knew it. First, it should be recognized that even though the
ecclesiastical vernal equinox is fixed to 21 March, the astronomical
equinox actually falls in a 53 hour window from 19 to 21 March on the
calendar, and stays in this range reasonably well. The main reason for
this window is because the Gregorian calendar kept the Julian calendar's
four-year leap year cycle, and merely tacked on an additional correction
at three out of every four century marks. This results in a cycle of 400
years, with 97 leap years over that period. Thus, while the error is
small, it has 400 years in which to oscillate before being reset.

In contrast, a 33-year cycle which includes 8 leap years and 25 common
years yields an average year length of 365.242424... days - both closer
to the target of 365.242374, and with a short enough cycle to keep the
vernal equinox on the same calendar day! Furthermore, the 33-year cycle
can be tied to the traditional 33-years that Jesus lived as a man between
his birth and his execution - surely something the laity would see as
"divinely" inspired. [from timezone.com]









.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Thiering Pesher"
    ... Religious practice is irrelevant. ... 'Wednesday' for a pagan in Roman ... around a 7-day cycle in the first place; that was by no means universal - ... change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. ...
    (soc.religion.quaker)
  • The Calendrical Base of the Mesoamerican Calendar
    ... particular multiplies of the ritual period interlock with particular ... The question is raised could a calendar in constant use for 2500 years ... period are whole numbers and the interlock period is in days. ... Figures in square brackets give the cycle accuracies in days in 100 years. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: hypothetical Yangshao calendar (early China)
    ... The Chinese Bi, from around 3400 till 2000 BC, are flat ... to crucial numbers of my calendar, ... So a Bi could actually be a symbol of the sun and moon, ... the month of 30 days and the cycle of 64 lunations. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Full moon of "ramadan"
    ... > there are byzantines writings that attest that the pagan arabs ... > it's in the article about the reconstructed pagan calendar. ... starts on the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah and not with the waxing crescent. ... > beginning of your cycle. ...
    (soc.religion.islam)
  • Re: hypothetical Yangshao calendar (early China)
    ... The Chinese Bi, from around 3400 till 2000 BC, are flat ... to crucial numbers of my calendar, ... So a Bi could actually be a symbol of the sun and moon, ... the month of 30 days and the cycle of 64 lunations. ...
    (sci.archaeology)