Right next to the Royal Observatory, at the end of the short road leading up to it, we came upon this wonderful machine. I just had to take a picture of it.

And another old telescope that is now part of the exhibition.

Carrying and selling time... A weird concept nowadays for sure. But back then, it could be an important service. There was, afterall, no internet back then. No cell phone service. Well, no phone service whatsoever for quite a long time, hence no time signal that way as well (does anyone even still remember that being a thing now?). So if you needed accurate time for your business, and remember that clocks usually were not as exact back then as they are now, you needed something like this.

This is one of the first prototypes for a working ship clock that would allow for precise navigation. One of the first that actually worked and was running precisely enough to be a real help no matter how far you travelled. It would obviously be refined a lot to get it to a smaller, easier to handle size.

The inside of the Observatory holds a museum, giving a wealth of information about the problems of maritime navigation. And how the British managed to get an advantage by the use of ever more precise clocks.