|
The Time Ball Tower, located on the seafront at Deal provides a working example of a once vital means for ships in the Downs off the Deal coast to accurately set their chronometers so that mariners could calculate their longitude position on outward journeys. The iron ball on the roof would drop at exactly 1pm every day. The Time Ball was installed in 1853. The site where the Time Ball Tower stands has long been used as a signalling site. As long ago as Tudor times bonfires were lit on the shingle beach close by to advise ships in the Downs anchorage of the arrival of mail. The first permanent structure on the Tower site was built in 1796 during the French wars. It was called a Shutter Telegraph and consisted of a frame containing six shutters which could be moved into 63 different combinations to indicate the alphabet, numerals and preselected phrases. In 1815 at the end of the French Wars the Shutter Telegraph system was dismantled, but by 1821 Deal had a new and grander signal tower, the Deal Semaphore, the building which now houses the Time Ball Tower Museum. The tower was then topped by a 30ft, semaphore mast with two moveable arms capable of giving 45 different signals. |
This image is available to buy in the following sizes
(Prices include international shipping) |
10x30 cm (4x12 in) £16
21x63 cm (8x25 in) £28
33x99 cm (13x39 in) £46
|
|
