Longitude Punk’d
Nearly 250 years ago, the world and more importantly transport (and therefore, industry) was vexed by a major problem; that of how to navigate accurately when sailing the seas. This was long before the days of GPS, before electricity and even before those lines that run down a map from top to bottom. That is longitude. Latitude runs horizontally and longitude vertically.
This was a problem, because it meant that when out of sight of land, ships could not accurately tell their position. Britain and the British Navy were in their heyday and as such the greatest minds in the greatest empire on Earth were put to the task of solving this problem. Some solutions had been thought of before, but none practical or indeed accurate enough.
Fortunately, Harrison arrived and solved the problem with his chronometers and suddenly the map had one more set of lines and the navy had their method of telling where they were.
Now, the Royal Observatory has given over its Time galleries in Flamsteed House to a group of steampunk artists, inventors, scientists and designers and had them provide a collection of alternative and often hilarious devices to solve the longitude problem. Ranging from literary giants like Robert Rankin to madcap inventors like Major Thaddeus Tinker the whole house has been completely taken over and themed around the mysteries Ancient Commodore and his tragic-comic search for a way to solve the longitudinal problem.
Brilliantly done and wonderfully humorous the collection is a perfectly judged and beautifully laid out around the house. Some of the displays are so convincing that I did hear people having to serious question whether what they had seen and heard was the truth or not. Fortunately the good people of the Royal Observatory are on hand to answer any questions and point out the humorous nature of the exhibition. (If that’s not enough, there’s a big sign at the end that gives it away…)
All in all this is a wonderful exhibition and shows a great sense of humour on the part of the Royal Observatory, not to mention some courage to dedicate such a large space to such a display. It’s one of the funniest, best done and best thought-out collections I’ve seen at any museum and I highly recommend it.
Details can be found on the Royal Observatory’s website here and the exhibition is running until the 4th January 2015. Get yourself there and be punk’ed!
By Peter Churchill
