The Royal Observatory, Greenwich: A Glance at Its History and WorkMaunder, E. Walter (Edward Walter)
History
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich: A Glance at Its History and Work
Maunder, E. Walter (Edward Walter)
Astronomy -- History; Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The clock that drives this great instrument, so that it can follow
a star or other celestial object in its apparent daily motion
across the sky, is in the basement of the S.-E. tower. It is a very
simple looking instrument, a conical pendulum in a glass case. The
pendulum makes a complete revolution once in two seconds. Below
it in a closed case is a water turbine. A cistern on the roof of
the staircase supplies this turbine with water, having a fall of
about thirty feet. The water rushing out of the arms of the turbine
forces it backward, and the turbine spins rapidly round, driving a
spindle which runs up into the dome, and gears through one or two
intermediate wheels with the great circle of the telescope; the
extremely rapid rotation of the spindle, four times in a second,
being converted by these intermediate wheels into the exceedingly
slow one of once in twenty-four hours. Just above the centre of
motion of the turbine is a set of three small wheels, all of exactly
the same size, and of the same number of teeth. Of these the bottom
wheel is horizontal, and is turned by the turbine. The top wheel
is also horizontal, and is turned by the pendulum. The third wheel
gears into both these, and is vertical. If the top and bottom wheels
are moving exactly at the same rate, the intermediate wheel simply
turns on its axis, but does not travel; but if the turbine and
pendulum are moving at different rates, then the vertical wheel is
forced to run in one direction or the other, and, doing so, it opens
or closes a throttle valve, which controls the supply of water to
the turbine, and so speedily brings the turbine into accord with
the pendulum. The control of the motion of the great telescope is
therefore almost as perfect as that of the astrographic and Thompson
equatorials, though the principle employed is very different. And
the control needs to be perfect, for, as said above, the great
telescope is mostly devoted to the observation of double stars, and
there can be no greater hindrance to this work than a telescope
which does not move accurately with the star.
There is a striking contrast between the great telescope and all the
massive machinery for its direction and movement, and the objects
on which it is directed--two little points of light separated by a
delicate hair of darkness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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