Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
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If you worked in London between the 1890s and the 1940s, you might have encountered Ruth Belville making her way along the streets of the London Docks, Clerkenwell, the West End and as far afield as South Kensington and Baker Street. Once a week, every week, Ruth would journey to the Royal Observatory Greenwich with an 18th-century pocket chronometer in her handbag. She would check the chronometer against the standard clock at the Observatory before traveling across London, making her way to the 30-40 customers who paid for a weekly visit from the ‘Greenwich Time Lady.’ Upon Ruth’s arrival, they could check their clocks against her chronometer. Ruth’s time service was accurate up to a tenth of a second.
Ruth inherited the job of bringing the time to London from her father, John Henry Belville, who worked as an assistant at the Royal Observatory Greenwich for 45 years under Astronomer Royals John Pond and George Airy. In the early 19th century, one of the ways for clockmakers to obtain the correct time involved having to physically go to the Observatory. In 1836 however, John Belville began a service of bringing the time to London.
Using John Arnold’s pocket chronometer No. 485/786, which he nicknamed ‘Arnold,’ Belville checked his chronometer against the Royal Observatory’s time, which was certified correct to within a tenth of a second. He then sent ‘Arnold’ by messenger to everyone who subscribed to his service. After John died in 1856, his widow Maria took over the role. Still using Arnold, she personalized the service by going to the shops herself. Following a long 36 years in the job, Maria retired in 1892 in her 80s, and allowed her 38-year-old daughter Ruth to take over.
Every Monday, Ruth would travel by public transport to Greenwich, have a cup of tea with the porter and receive a certificate of accuracy for her trusty chronometer. She would then spend her day traveling to London’s clock shops, bringing her customers the correct time, whereupon they would adjust their own clocks. Ruth continued working for 48 years, enduring the First World War, competition with the Standard Time Company and the laying of telegraph wires all over London.
In 1924 the BBC began broadcasting the pips and the sound of Big Ben, which meant anyone with a radio could get reasonably accurate time. The introduction in 1936 of the speaking clock (also called ‘Tim’), which allowed people to hear the accurate time by dialing the letters TIM (846), was a further blow to Ruth’s trade. However, Ruth kept doing her rounds, even when wireless communication became more widespread and reliable.
Media attention earned Ruth Belville the nickname ‘The Greenwich Time Lady,’ and she featured in a wide range of publications including Tatler and the Evening News. Ruth chose to retire in 1940 at the age of 85, in part due to the danger of walking through London during the Second World War. Sadly, the family business finished with her, ending over a century of the unique Belville time service. Ruth died in 1943, three years after retiring, with ‘Arnold’ the chronometer reportedly by her bedside. Ruth had been provided with a pension by the Clockmakers’ Company, London, in recognition of her long-standing services. Upon her death, Arnold was bequeathed to the Company.
NB: Tintin, if this wall of text quoted above is entirely out of topic's remit just let me know and it can be replaced with a link.
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
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Posted by Ewan
NB: Tintin, if this wall of text quoted above is entirely out of topic's remit just let me know and it can be replaced with a link.
Ewan, this is all perfectly splendid - thankyou :flower:
15th December 2023 18:25
Brigantia
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
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Posted by Ewan
British doctor using DDT! while delousing newly freed female prisoners at the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.
I remember reading in a book quite a few years ago, a quote from a wartime diary where the diarist said that DDT was an excellent preservative for wood. He used it on the furniture in his house. Yikes...
15th December 2023 18:29
Ewan
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
General Electric Wall-Mounted Refrigerator and Freezer, a 1955 Innovation
This candid double mug shot depicts a young 23 year old Frank Sinatra when he was arrested by the Bergen County, New Jersey sheriff in 1938 and subsequently charged with seduction and adultery – a criminal offence at the time. Frank Sinatra was tagged with ‘Arrest 42799’ and this notorious mug shot. The charge was later changed to adultery, and eventually dismissed.
Through its first decades APG was a man’s world. But that changed during World War II. The soldiers who once worked the testing grounds but had been deployed overseas were at first replaced by male civilians. Then as the draft hit hard, the civilians began to disappear and in their place came thousands of women.
15th December 2023 18:37
grapevine
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
Indeed, that's one way to test an explosive device - though I imgagine it was just an empty shell she was testing - but that's no fun, so yeah!
16th December 2023 13:53
Tintin
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
Margaret Ann Neve, aged 110, in 1902. Born in Guernsey in 1792, she died in 1903 and is the first recorded person to have lived in three different centuries. The photograph has been colourised :flower:
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
An absolutely charming short winter scene from the village of Snowshill - somewhat aptly named! - in Gloucestershire, England 1958. Apparently the final shot shows a pub called the Lygon Arms pub. :sun:
This is how it looks today, practically unchanged, without snow:
Born in 1858, Michael Fitzpatrick talks about the many changes that have taken place in farming during his lifetime and recalls an eviction at Bodyke.
Mr. Fitzpatrick moved from Clare to a farm near Maynooth as part of the Land Commission scheme in 1940 where he has lived ever since.
Now aged 107 Mr. Fitzpatrick has experienced many changes in the world of farming. The biggest change that has taken place is the introduction of machinery and specifically the combine harvester.
Mr. Fitzpatrick also remembers seeing an eviction taking place in Bodyke, County Clare in June 1887. He recalls the event as being “very cruel” with women and children thrown out of their homes.
19th December 2023 14:28
Tintin
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
Ice-skating in Central Park with the Dakota Apartments in the background, 1898. The building was named "Dakota" because it was thought that it was so far from downtown that it might as well be in the Dakotas.
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
"L'Arroseur Arrosé" is a historic French silent comedy film, directed by Louis Lumière. It is widely recognized as the earliest comedy film and the first to tell a fictional story through cinema. The film was first shown in Lyon on June 10, 1895, marking a significant milestone in the history of cinema.
19th December 2023 15:23
Tintin
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
Playing tennis in the 1930s. So very sedate :)
19th December 2023 15:35
Tintin
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
I've always known that the inimitable Judge Judith Sheindlin was the real deal before her fame on Judge Judy. Here she is seen being filmed on TV before that show even aired, perhaps a good two years or more, demonstrating her being very much true to herself in that show.
This from 1993 :sun: :muscle:
19th December 2023 16:40
Ewan
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
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Posted by Tintin
Playing tennis in the 1930s. So very sedate :)
Reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch that. :ROFL:
20th December 2023 12:32
Tintin
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
An early TV news clip featuring Robert Ballard the day after the discovery of the Titanic. This recorded on September 2nd 1985 :flower:
20th December 2023 12:42
Tintin
Re: Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years
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Posted by Tintin
A HUGE thanks to ALL of you and the quality of your contributions, the vast majority of which, if they weren't already captured, do now reside in the library :rose: :muscle:
For our Canadian friends, Vancouver, from 1907, somewhere I've always been interested in wanting to visit, but know it doesn't look like this now :heart:
An update on the colourised Vancouver film: apparently not only this the oldest known film footage of Vancouver but the person who filmed it was William H. Harbeck who will be familiar with Titanic researchers as being (perhaps) commissioned by the White Star Line to film her maiden voyage.
He tragically passed away along with all those other poor souls.
