X

St Bee's railway crossing and station provides an X this week with the yellow cross hatching of the road's 'no stopping' lines.  This is also probably the only angle one can get a full view of the signal box on the right.  Built in 1891 it is a rare example of one built in the Arts and Craft style although the windows are no longer original, a shame for the viewer but not for the signalman who I imagine appreciates the double glazing at this time of year. The station and most of the village is constructed of the dark red St Bees Sandstone, the same type as in the nearby sea cliffs

here seen with a thin strata of white sandstone.  Its full geological name is St Bees New Red Sandstone, yes 'new' - a mere 200 million years old.  

Time to shoehorn another X, this time an Christmas, or rather Xmas, cactus.  Half of mine has just flowered but it looks as though the other half might actually flower at Xmas-time, which will be the first time it has lived up to its name. As my cactus is red Mr Google has helpfully provided a xanthic one in full flower. 

Blessings to you all and have a very Merry Xmas

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at X here

XXIV Hour Clock

Would I be able to work out the time after an Xmas drink or two with this clock? My brow might furrow. At the time of its installation in 1852 it was a cutting edge Galvano-Magnetic Clock (electricity at the time was called Galvanism).  As can be seen by its accumulating number of Xs it is a 24 hour clock.  The minute and second hands are conventional but the hour arm goes round the dial only once in 24 hours, or should I say in XXIV hours.

This man stood a long time at the clock which welcomes one into the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is called simply the Shepherd 24 Hour Gate Clock.  Of course there are also the explanations of The Time Ball (which drops down at 13:00), the Ordnance Survey Bench Mark and the Public Standards of Length. Ah yes the good old days of feet and inches. The inscription of 'Shepherd Patentee' on the clock is significant because there was a dispute when he installed the clocks at Greenwich whether or not he was the inventor (he was).  The galvanism or electric signalling transmitted time pulses from Greenwich to slave clocks throughout the country and rather than each area of the country having a different time (nightmare for running a railway system) there was one single time. Eventually, as Shepherd envisioned, the pulses were also sent via submarine cables across the world.  The Gate Clock is the visualisation of unified time although there is a rather more workmanlike, but just as interesting, master clock in the observatory.

The Royal Observatory says the Shepherd clock is one of the most photographed objects at the Observatory ( here is an early c1870 view).  I proved the Observatory right by taking a picture of the clock location as I entered the gate and a close up of the clock as I left.  There was lots to see in-between those two times, not to mention tea and cake on the Gagarin Terrace.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at X here 

 

           

Happy X Day

 

X - The letter that in algebra denotes an unknown quantity so as I look up into the sky there it is.   Always a tricky letter in an ABC Wednesday round but this week it presents itself at the most appropriate time of year.

So as I post this the Xmas presents have been opened, an overlarge dinner has been consumed. Time to get the games out?  No lets take a walk

and perhaps play a game of game of 0s and Xs.  Spin those letters.  Don't linger I've got to get back in time for the Xmas Special  Doctor Who at 5:15 in the year 1892.  Another unknown quantity.   Just when the John Lewis advert has got me getting that warm Christmas feeling, by the child looking out of the window and the snowman disappearing to on a long journey to buy a present for his companion, and then there the snowlady has new gloves and a hat. The child is happy. Awww.

Argh. Who but the writer Steven Moffat could turn a loveable and fun object like a snowman into something that may need a trip behind the sofa.   Will Doctor Who save Christmas?  And what will the new interior of the Tardis look like?  Unknown but I'm sure it will have the X Factor.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas

An entry to ABC Wednesday. A journey through the alphabet