This is a terrific thread. I have been to Greenwich too and also some of the
clock exhibits in London. There's a beautiful pendulum master and slave
clock set up in the British Museum, and there's an original huge Caesium
(British spelling!)  frequency standard in the Kensington Science Museum.
The last time I was there in 2013 there was also a special feature
exhibition about Alan Turing and the Bletchley code breakers.  I did pass
through Bletchley station on the train about 20 years ago when I was in the
UK but regrettably didn't have the time to stop there. I can recommend the
climb up the hill at Greenwich to anyone - it's definitely worth the effort.
They didn't allow photography of the Harrison clocks but I did manage to
sneak one or two before the minder got to me :-)

I'd love to have a genuine electro-optical speaking clock. There's one in
the Australian Telecom museum not far from where I live. There's also a
terrific display of a complete electromechanical telephone exchange
including a speaking clock in the telecommunications museum in Stockholm but
as I don't speak Swedish I couldn't understand what it was saying.  I've
just finished making a speaking clock using more modern technology, it uses
a 30 year old speech synthesizer chip and sounds just like Stephen Hawking.

Morris
Melbourne, Australia

Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2016 10:42:19 +1000
From: Jim Palfreyman jim77742@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

Speaking of "speaking clocks" - here's two photos of the ones that used to
be used in Australia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock#Australia

The top photo with rotating optical disks is a gorgeous piece of machinery.

The one below - I have one, and I keep it running.

:-)

Hi Morris,

The idea of the author of "A Brief History of Time" telling the time
briefly has a certain appeal.
Can you share some construction details? Even a parts list would be
useful.

Thanks,
Bill Hawkins

-----Original Message-----
From: Morris Odell
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 5:32 PM

This is a terrific thread. I have been to Greenwich too and also some of
the clock exhibits in London. There's a beautiful pendulum master and
slave clock set up in the British Museum, and there's an original huge
Caesium (British spelling!)  frequency standard in the Kensington
Science Museum.
The last time I was there in 2013 there was also a special feature
exhibition about Alan Turing and the Bletchley code breakers.  I did
pass through Bletchley station on the train about 20 years ago when I
was in the UK but regrettably didn't have the time to stop there. I can
recommend the climb up the hill at Greenwich to anyone - it's definitely
worth the effort.
They didn't allow photography of the Harrison clocks but I did manage to
sneak one or two before the minder got to me :-)

I'd love to have a genuine electro-optical speaking clock. There's one
in the Australian Telecom museum not far from where I live. There's also
a terrific display of a complete electromechanical telephone exchange
including a speaking clock in the telecommunications museum in Stockholm
but as I don't speak Swedish I couldn't understand what it was saying.
I've just finished making a speaking clock using more modern technology,
it uses a 30 year old speech synthesizer chip and sounds just like
Stephen Hawking.

Morris
Melbourne, Australia