American Reacts to Why Britain Is The Center of The World
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- 🌎PATREON: / itsjps
JOIN PATREON FOR FULL ACCESS TO SHOWS/MOVIE REACTIONS, THANK YOU!!! ❤️❤️❤️
🔴SECOND CHANNEL: MoreJps - / @morejps
📦 PO BOX ADDRESS:
ItsJps
PO Box 94
Brookeville, MD 20833
🤝INSTAGRAM: @itsjpsyt
☕DONATE (thank you so much :D): www.buymeacoff...
👑TIER 5 PATRONS (KINGS): Archer, Sean, Michael, Phil, Bailey, Ben, Lorni, Adrian, Ron, David, Malachi, Kris, William, Alex, Clovis
This guy should have done a little research. The Brits weren't just given the honour for GMT. The Brits invented the portable time-piece that enabled global navigation, using a spring instead of pendulum. They were the ONLY nation with reliable navigation, already using GMT until the other nations copied the tech. That's why GMT was acknowledged as the zero meridian by all the other nations.
Thank god someone knows what they are talking about
There's a Jay Foreman video on this subject iirc
Facts! If you invent something you get to name it.
Correct and as we invented the railway system we needed time tables first. they were made in "Railway Time" or "London Time" i.e. GMT Clocks often had two minute hands, one on local time, one on GMT. There are still the odd one about.
I think the fact there are only two ways to algin the world map neatly so that all the world's land masses are contiguous (and not cut off at edge of map) also helps GMT's case. One is where Africa and Europe are at the centre axis and other where Pacific ocean is at the centre (This is found in certain Japanese and American maps). The Pacific centre alignment is not as good as the former since it focuses more on a vast water body while leaving landmasses in the peripheral veiw.
I thought it was to do with the fact that the Brits, actually been the ones to work out how to ascertain the longitude of any place, quickly and easily. They, ( John Harrison) invented the chronometer for accurate time keeping on board a ship, and the Royal observatory (Neville Maskilin) came up with the chart of astronomical observations to do the same. The chronometer allowed any ship's captain anywhere in the world to be able to know what time it was in London, all he had to do was observe local noon time and work out how many hours, minutes and seconds behind or in front of London time, to work out his ships longitude. Greenwich was chosen as recognition of the fact that without British invention and ingenuity ships would still be piling up on shores left right and centre. Just another simple thing that effects every living soul on this planet bought to you by the British, so next time you board a jet, remember your flying on a British system of navigation and the engines driving it were invented by them to. In today's world its very popular to rag out the British Empire, to tear down statues, but the morons doing it don’t give a thought for their own debt to that very Empire, and the effects that the British Empire has had directly on all of our lives, from penicillin, the end of slavery, the telegraph or television, Insurance or modern banking, the jet engine or radar, it's the British who bought it to you. So if you have a stainless steel pin or plate, you owe the British, if you ever survived an infection thank the British for the antibiotics, never had small pox or cholera thank Britain, and if you're of African descent and free not in slavery, it's the British you should thank for that freedom.
John Harrison. George Harrison was a beatle.
Longitude Act 1714
@@davebrown9707 Well John Harrison built the worlds first accurate Chronometer and will be remembered for that that forever, George Harrison was a drug fuelled singer who is sort of still remembered by oldies at least.
@@JasonLaneZardoz exactly.
@@dalane5196 i know who they are im the one that said who they are. Plus George Harrison isn't only remembered by oldies he's one of the biggest legends in music history
Bh the way, the British invented trains and railways. The Longitude Clock was made by a Brit. Britain made the modern world.
As well as most of the things of significance, in the modern world
JPS shitting on France is the most British thing he’s ever done. 😂
And JPS saying “oh the US just gave it to the Brits” is the most American thing he has ever done.
He truely is the son of two countries.
The line still goes through France, so they're probably okay with that.
We're very grateful for America gifting London this line... 😉
@@Music5362 Our country France is also the center of the World
Well balanced climate.
UK is always cold there and sometimes hot.
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 actually Britain is the centre of the world, didn't you watch this video?, you probably have never came to Britain otherwise you'll know that it's not always cold here, especially in the summer where its hot durn the days and warm at night!!!, you don't know anything about Britain to do?
😅 very good
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 this comment is so funny💀💀💀💀
The world had to standardise time to best use the trains that the British gave to you all, you are welcome Joel.
@bobbybigboyyes Also apple trees, electricity and screwdrivers...I didn't want to drown the poor lad in facts isn't it enough that he is making his video using our language because Americans have never invented one of their own? Give poor Joel a break Dude!
All started a long time before trains, think ships
@bobbybigboyyes Don't forget our greatest export, the English language, the one that we were speaking before the USA was invented, and they try to imitate (unsucessfully). 😂
@@JasonLaneZardoz Exactly so that they could calculate their position in the high seas and navigate courses accurately. much more important than the times of trains.
To explain. Before the first railways in the 1830s, every town in Britain had its own local time set by the sun, determined by how east or west you were, and all local clocks would be set to that local time. So, for example, Bristol local time was 10 minutes later than in London, being 2º35' west of London. All national railway clocks were synchronised by law to London time in November 1840. This was called 'railway time', though local time continued for decades in some areas alongside it. Must have been a bit confusing!
As Al Murray told us...." Great Britain is the centre of the world because.... WE put the line there !"
JOHN FLAMSTEAD came up with a formula for converting solar time to mean time in1670.
That's where we get GMT from. GREENWICH MEAN TIME .
And could be accurately done, after the Longitude Act of 1714, pushed the development of accurate maritime chronometers that was vital to accurately measuring longitude
France : Hold my baguette
Greenwich Mean Time was first introduced in 1825 and adopted by the railways in Britain in 1847 to standardise the timetables across the country, the conference in 1884 was not about US railway timetables it was the International Meridian Conference which was involved with the much broader consideration of a single meridian point for the world as a whole, whilst the conference was held in the USA it was the British GMT that was adopted so contrary to the American perspective given here Britain gave the world GMT.
But wouldn't have been possible without the Longitude Act of 1714, GMT was born out of the ability to measure longitude accurately. This all happened during the time of Queen Anne.
Agreed, the many accomplishments by both nations cannot be overlooked
Let's not forget that John Harrison (a Yorkshire man) invented the very first accurate marine time keeper, before that, people relied on celestial navigation, not very reliable at all. Could you do a reaction to his life story, it's really fascinating 👍👍👍
Point of order: Celestial Navigation is VERY accurate, the kit however is a wee bit big
And it made Del Boy a millionaire lol
@@MegaAndyblue Cracking!
@@izzyroberts5518 not when. It's cloudy. Thats my pont.
@@MegaAndyblue That's this time next year mon ami, as the French say.
As a proud Londoner and someone who was born in Greenwich. We were always lead to believe that GMT was the scientific solution to sea navigation and general time from the 1700s onwards. It was not agreed at a conference in 1884. Maybe it was agreed that it was to be the standard from which world wide time was based in 1884, but we had a lot of the pre-eminent thknkers of the time and this group of islands were a major power back then as well. This expanded across the world via our empire at the time as we exported this along with other expertise so the world could catch up.
Of course we all know it's centre and not center ;-)
That's okay, @euronick61, because all of those Americans have now got at least another 5 hours to learn how to spell, haven't they? 👍🤣👍
@@Phil_A_O_Fish 😀
Nice one Joel.
Britain had worked out longitudes and the Greenwich time system and spread it across the globe 150 years before the USA had a navy. (The”New Navy” was created in 1884, I believe.) It was then that USA realised it needed to comply with the British organisation of world time, so called a meeting for important countries to agree with each other about what the world had already been doing for several generations. Thanks for the acknowledgement, USA! 👍
This video is an American trying to claim they did something when it wasn't them. No America didn't give it to Britain. If America had that option they would make themselves the center has they already think they are. Britain and France argued for a long time over this matter and Britain won. The British invented trains and sorting time out was due to us needing it sorted.
Correct, but nothing really to do with trains, it was ships. The Longitude Act of 1714, is a much better place to start.
@Jason Lane it was both. Trains convinced more people to do it. Was when setting up timetables for departures and some trians arrived before they left previous station when time wasn't standard. Trains and ships worked together but ships had been working fine for centuries without standard time. Trains are what pointed our the problem with no standard time.
@@leoleeuk Really, so if "ships were working fine" why go to the trouble and expense of setting up a competition to more accurately measure longitude?
I know all about trains and timetables and the standardisation of time. The fact is is that zero longitude was established accurately because ships needed it, trains weren't even invented. As time pieces became cheaper, because of the industrial revolution and then trains came on line, they were simply using something that had already been established over 150 years or so before
@Jason Lane because we had better maps and had discovered most of the world by then. Ship worked well for centuries finding the destination. Time wasn't too important because ships never took same amount of time to travel due to using weather to travel. When train came about so did mechanisation and the reliance on trade winds fell off. Ships take so long to travel too that it could never arrive before it left like train were doing. If standard time was necessary for ships it would have be obvious long before trains and they wouldn't have worked too well without it but they didn't mind and it didn't cause a problem. Only caused a problem when trains arrived.
@@leoleeuk Oh for the love of god!
Before the invention of accurate naval chronometers (Longitude Act) ships used dead reckoning to find longitude, this was not accurate, especially over long distances. This lead to many disaster and loses, including but not least the Scilly Naval Disaster of 1707, where 2,000 sailors were drowned. You claim it is un-important. IT WAS VITAL!!!!
Accurate longitude was established long before a train was ever seen.
I know trains could arrive before they left, in fact setting clocks was often done visually, the ball in Times Square in New York is exactly what that was for. Setting the time on a visual cue, which was very limited if you are behind a fucking hill.
For the last time. Accurate longitude was achieved BECAUSE SHIPS NEEDED IT FIRST! NOT TRAINS. GMT was more driven by the needs of sea travel, than land travel, accurate time is far easier to calculate on land that in the middle of an ocean.
GMT was already there when trains were invented and became popular. Train timetables SIMPLY ADOPTED as system of accurate time measurement.
I'm shocked you have not mentioned the telegraph?! Which allowed you to easily coordinate time keeping, or you used a chronometer and a theodolite to work out the exact GMT of your geographical zone you were in yourself. Which I have actually done myself.
I've been to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and did the usual tourist thing of straddling the Prime Meridian, and have the photo to prove it! It was actually a very interesting visit, and I learnt a lot that seems obvious now but wasn't so obvious at the time - such as, how time is measured. If you ever visit the UK again, I'd definitely recommend paying the Royal Observatory a visit.
I concur.
I straddled it on a beach in Cleethorpes, Lincs.
Greenwich is a wonderful visit.
We don’t celebrate this massive achievement enough in Britain, 150 years before the USA decided to make a navy and realised that it needed to fall in line with Britain’s world measurements. That’s when it called for a conference to acknowledge what everyone was already doing.
@@colinp2238 I live in Grimsby and have done the same thing at Cleethorpes.
i think that the creation of the marine chronometer, which made the calculation of global longitude possible being in this country gave some weight to the argument for putting the line here. we also introduced the world to railway timetables by the way.
Wow Joel, you’re getting the hang of British/Australian sarcasm. “Let’s give it to the Brits.” I love it.
Btw Greenwich Mean Time was adopted in 1847.
Sir Sandford Fleming FRSC KCMG (January 7, 1827 - July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, and use of the 24-hour clock as key elements to communicating the accurate time, all of which influenced the creation of Coordinated Universal Time.[1] He designed Canada's first postage stamp, produced a great deal of work in the fields of land surveying and map making, engineered much of the Intercolonial Railway and the first several hundred kilometers of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada and founder of the Canadian Institute (a science organization in Toronto).
John Flamsteed, (1646-1719) was an English man and the first Astronomer Royal and director of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich from 1675 after he came up with the formula for converting solar time to mean time, and published a set of conversion tables in the early 1670s. Soon after, King Charles II, appointed John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal and he moved into the new Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the name for mean solar time of the longitude (0°) of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England. The meridian at this longitude is called the prime meridian or Greenwich meridian.
A need for time tables was soon realised when railways first came into public use. In 1848 George Stephenson (deceased) was called ‘the father of the railways’, though that accolade has been challenged because there were other engineers involved in the development of the world’s first railway system. The most notable was Robert Trevithick, a Cornishman, who in 1803 built the first steam locomotive to run on rails The first railway line in the world dates back to 1825, when George Stephenson connected the towns of Stockton and Darlington in England by rail.
Greenwich Mean Time was adopted across the island of Great Britain by the Railway Clearing House in 1847, and by almost all railway companies the following year, from which the term "railway time" is derived.
Sir Sanford Fleming, a Canadian engineer, was the first person to propose the use of worldwide time zones back in 1878. His idea was to divide the world into 24 time zones that were each 15 degrees of longitude apart. The reason for this is that the earth rotates 15 degrees every hour, or 360 degrees in 24 hours. There were two main reasons for the choice. The first was the fact that in 1884, the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian
There was a chap called John Harrison who was entered a competition set by the monarch to create a marine “chronometer” meaning a precision timepiece. Back then pendulum clocks were a very accurate form of timekeeping in stationary clocks. The Elizabeth towers clock uses the pendulum and it’s very accurate. But taking a pendulum clock out to sea was impossible due to the rocky seas. So it was Harrison who created a clock that worked accurately without the need of the pendulum. He had no prior history in horology and was very poor. He was also a perfectionist so it took him a long time to produce a clock he was happy with. Without going into too much detail, his design evolved into things like what you have in the watch I have you, the idea that a mechanical timepiece can keep time without having to be stationary. Timekeeping was crucial to determining longitude and latitude. The Greenwich observatory is fascinating. Full of all things nautical and horological. Boats and sea and clocks and time. The Elizabeth towers mechanics call Greenwich observatory three times a week to make sure the clock is in time with gmt. And that the first strike of Big Ben is on the new hour. All very interesting stuff
The Great Western Railway were the fist company to apply a standardised time to to their stations in 1840, 41 years before Chester Arthur became president. "Railway time" was progressively taken up by all railway companies in Great Britain over the following seven years. The schedules by which trains were organised and the time station clocks displayed were brought in line with the local mean time for London or "London Time", the time set at Greenwich by the Royal Observatory, which was already widely known as Greenwich Mean Time.
"the US gave it to us" It wasn't yours to give, it was a decision by all countries involved.
True enough the US has brought its own inventions to the table like flight, electricity, the first power house ,the assembly line ,computer and internet. Many nations brought tremendous advances to the world and none should be overlooked
@@brianpeterson5559 The theory of flight was first worked-out in England in about 1853. Britain built a man carrying glider plane. Powered flight became possible with the invention of the internal combustion engine by the Germans. The Wright Bros were simply the first of many to get it right. But it could have been one of many.
The British discovered what electricity actually was. Everything that followed was a consequence of what the British had discovered.
For goodness sake, take the joke as it was meant ! Joel is a really lovely lad and respectful of British history
Electricity from Ben Franklin to Tesla and Thomas Edison being backed by Westinghouse and JP Morgan American innovation,from the wright brothers didn't simply do anything.. they did it. And it was Americans that saved the free world from the Nazis. Henry Ford created assembly line that in turn made tanks and planes for all the allied forces
@@oldman1734 typical rewrite history after we beat you in 1776 you came back in 1812 and burned our white house and we beat you again
It had to be Britain or France to make the international date line in the centre of the Pacific where there are no major land masses, so 1 country doesn't have 2 dates to cope with
Greenwich mean time was in the Early 19th century not the late 19th century,it had already been about for over 50 years before this conference I think.
Erm, not really. This all started with the Longitude Act of 1714. The outcome of which where advancement of maritime chronometers that allowed a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. Before trains and before the telegraph.
That is why Greenwich was chosen, because we were the first to accurately measure longitude, at midday, to the second at Greenwich.
Sorry Joel. You didn't give it to us because if you listen with non-defensive ears we invented the means to understand time. And if we hadn't invented the train this Conference wouldn't have been needed. And it has nothing to do with 'Britain ruled the world' but everything to do with the right inventions.
Another advantage in having the prime meridian at Greenwich is that the international date line along a path where there is little land. This means that the awkward date line doesnt affect many people there. It only affects people when they cross over it.
Joel what on earth did they teach you in school? I left school fifty four years ago so it is hard to remember when we were taught about Greenwich Mean Time. My best guess is before I went to high school. So about fifty eight years ago. Some of my primary school teachers imparted a lot of general knowledge. I really do like your work.
Mate they teach them nothing at school these days, to busy informing them of the 67 different genders and their rights to change their transgender status or discovering their own truths. My Nephews left school, year 12, and didn't even know who Nelson or Wellington were, never heard of Waterloo. Know nothing about the religious reformation and the Armada, and never heard of the Industrial Revolution or the Agricultural Revolution. The ignorance of today's education and educators is quite breathtaking really, it all about self these days, self-truths for Christ sake what is that about, in my day it was the truth or it was false, no grey areas.
@@dalane5196 it horrifies me at times how little some people know. At times Christmas annoys the hell out of me. I often said that what Santa Claus needs is one of Alfred Nobel's inventions as a suppository. I gave up because I kept having to explain that he invented Dynamite. I think it was probably when I was in sixth class (1964) The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was announced. Our teacher explained that Nobel endowed the peace prize because of the flack he copped because he invented an explosive.
We were fed all sorts of snippets of general knowledge right through our schooling. Now so many people don't even seem to comprehend basic grammar. The so called education system has a lot to answer for. Oh yet another concept we were taught at school and at home was not only do we have rights but we also have responsibilities.
What’s great about this is,we tell Joel when to eat and sleep the names in the country Joel….great…Britain 🇬🇧😄😉
Britain discovered longitude!
A man names Harrison invented the chronometer, overcoming ship's motion in order to have reliable time, years ahead of other nations, latitude was always easy to find using a sextant but a longitude fix was impossible to find reliably until Harrison' time piece!
A very american view; at that time britain ruled 60% of the world and what a conference in the US or the opinions of the French would have been completely ignored. Britain had the technology (i.e. the observatory and the clocks). This was the technical advance of the age. How do you know what time it is on the other side of the world? You need a reliable clock. Finding what time it is is easy; Greenwich times stars crossing the meridian and sets its clocks; nowadays it uses an atomic clock. You know what time it is anywhere by taking a standard clock with you to set time. Without time you dont know where you are at sea; you measure a bright star and see what time it is to find time zone. It was the invention of these standard clocks by Harrison that made Britain the centre of the earth not a committee. Greenwich is well worth visiting. I have a vested interest in that I was born in London on the meridian - winks ;-)
GMT is also referred to Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. It is also used by the military including the US and is referred to as Zulu time. You may have heard this used in military movie scenes when they confirm the time by saying, mission as confirmed 16:00 Zulu for example.
Surely Zulu hours are exercise timings and Alpha hours refer to real world time?
@@colinp2238 No, Zulu time is as GMT or UTC and is the same time world wide. Also used in Aviation. Local time is Alpha time so it depends where you are.
@Barry Humphries Yes, I remember now, we were in Germany and on exercise, we changed to GMT for the duration of the exercise, then back to local time after (GMT +1).
When I was in the RAF (Air Traffic Control & Operations) we always used Zulu time on a 24 hour clock, it came naturally eventually, & today. 40 odd years later, I still use it
Britain started GMT for UK in 1880. Chester Arthur called the meeting in DC 1884 to standardise world time to GMT.
Sir Sanford Flemming a Canadian had an idea for world standard time originally in 1878 but using 15° zones.
GMT was used by the vast majority of world trade in 1884. So the conference was a "rubber stamp" to finally knock the French out of contention.
Us Brits also invented trains by the way
I like the fact Britain tells all nations… it’s time to sleep n eat 😂
Did I hear it wrong? At the beginning he (Johnny Harris) mentioned that the north pole was at 180 degrees latitude? It is of course 90 degrees etc. GPS uses WGS84 (world geodetic system) for the coordinates to match the location on the earth's surface with the calculated position from the GPS. The military time zones refer to GMT or UTC as ZULU time. Time zones have a letter assigned which is in this case a Z. Using phonetics, Z=zulu as in alpha, bravo, charley, etc.
Thought you'd seen Al Murray explain why UK is centre of the World!
Hes partly wrong wrong, it wasn't the US. The British gave the world, standardiszation, not only with time because of the trains on the UK but also when it came to products coming out of British factories during the industrialisation.
That's right the world time system was already there and the standard set for marine navigation locked in to the accuracy of British maps and the invention of marine navigational clocks, GMT was already with us from the mid 1600s. In 1847 they simply agreed to accept what was seen as a win win solution by adopting the British system world wide, national time zones were were set using GMT as the base line, hence New York is 7.01 pm on say the 20th of January Eastern time at the same time as London is 00.01 am on the 21st of January ( just an average example) whether train travel timetable's were set to the time of that country within there own borders, well that was up to individual nations. Great Briton had already adopted GMT within its geographical borders, what other country's did was up to them, the British simply lead the way and others followed.
It makes me laugh when Americans can't understand why the US isn't the centre (note spelling) of the world. it's like asking why a 4 year old isn't the President. When the meetings were held to discuss matters the USA was just starting to walk unaided. It is obvious that France would not agree that Britain should be the centre due to the ongoing rivalry of the two nations.
I don't think that you were near to greenwich when you were in London, and so you probably never walked past the observatory building.
What an American-centric version of events 😂😂😂😂 that totally leaves out the most important points. The British were the ones that INVENTED trains, who INVENTED Greenwich mean time, and who INVENTED the navigation system for ships. That’s why Britain was chosen as the zero line of longitude.
Yo JPS! What is going ON?! You are so awesome omg! Me and my bf just love watching you. I was born in Sussex but live in Glasgow. Your love for our weird little island just makes me so happy. Next time you visit us we will buy you a tesco meal deal 😉
before the standardization of railway time, the clocks on the stations had two hour hands one of which shows London time and the other local time
in the English west country, the difference was eight minutes
I live close to the Greenwich meridian which is a line running down England
Bristol still has one of those clocks. 😃👍
It was voted on by a multi country group... france wanted it to go through paris.. we discovered how to calculate longitude which was very difficukt for years
Oh dear, this guy (in the video) hasn't done his research properly. It's well documented that GMT was well established before the USA decades later accepted a ratification by other countries, esp. UK who were already using it.
So, it’s true. OF COURSE! The UK really is the centre of the universe, and I quote ‘King of the Ocean’ Seriously though, very interesting video. Dry presenter.
You’re very cheeky this week Joel. Enjoying it ❤
Great Vid. Greenwich Observatory is definitely worth a visit. GMT is also known as Zulu Time, which is the military name and is used primarily in aviation, at sea, and in the armed forces.
The US didn't just give it to us JP - they knew we already had a very good system in place and they, wisely, thought they'd utilise our talents.
This is really spooky. Yesterday I watched the excellent British/ US two part TV dramatisation on DVD called Longitude, about John Harrison and his efforts to solve the problems of navigation by developing the ships chronometer. Michael Gambon and Ian Hart play father and son in the series. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. ⏱⏱
It really is an excellent series and based on an excellent book. 👍😃
You see, we were so important we didn't have to make people agree that we were the centre of the world, they just knew it was true! Sometimes Ametican maps are centered on the US, but that means Asia is split. If the 0 line went through Washinton, that messy date line would run through a heavily populated continent. One might say the Earth is designed to have Britian at its centre, perhaps God is an Englishman!
Glad other commenters on here picked up the fact that they completely ignored the Harrison clock in this video that finally enabled longitudinal navigation. If you go to the Greenwich observatory you can see it and many of Harrison’s other clocks.
In 1884 the Greenwich Meridian was recommended as the Prime Meridian of the World.
There were two main reasons for this. The first was that the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian.
The recommendation was based on the argument that naming Greenwich as Longitude 0º would be of advantage to the largest number of people.
The natural centre point. Makes Great British sense to me. HI from South Yorkshire England.
As Matilda Grobhinde has commented there’s some information missing from this video. The Greenwich Meridian was formally adopted by the British in 1851. Given that the Meridian was important to sea navigation (ships could calculate their longitude by comparing local time against the Meridian to work out how far east or west they were) it was used by the Royal Navy and British merchant shipping. By the time President Arthur proposed a common Meridian, some two thirds of shipping were already using the Greenwich Meridian as the standard.
Why Greenwich as opposed to say, Central London? London was an important international port and all ships travelling to or from the docks there would pass Greenwich. The Greenwich Observatory was visible to all shipping and there’s a huge red ball on top of it, which drops at midday. It was therefore easy for vessels to use Greenwich as a reference. Greenwich is also home to the Royal Naval College and is worth a visit when you come to London again.
GMT began on September 25th, 1676, because of the railway companies' need for accurate timetables . I don't think that in 1884, there was a viable alternative for the rest of the world to adopt when you consider the British empire had territories and protectorates, including hawaii, around the globe. So GMT had been adopted by a good number of countries already.
Oh my goodness Joel! What a brilliant explanation. I had no idea how it all worked and he made it so interesting hearing about it all. Why wasn’t I taught this at school, or maybe I was but with a boring uninteresting teacher ( I would think so yes!) 😄 Britain the centre of the world...suits me! 😄👍
Yes. . .thank you....we had ..a very...Merry Christmas...and looking forward to a new challenging , new year..
You obviously did not listen properly JPS. Again.
The meeting went to a VOTE of all the nations.
The USA did not "Give it to the Brits. The vast majority of the countries did. Not the USA on its own.
OK? 😉
There is so much wrong with this video, as covered by others in the comments, but I'm just taking a quick look at my globe and noticing all the OTHER countries that are ALSO at the centre of the world, including a handful in AFRICA, so to imply some sort of racism (why else emphasise the whiteness of the delegates at the conference?!) is absurd. Also, I learned this stuff at age 10 in primary school. Is any of this easy history really such a revelation to Americans? Wow!
Greenwich was chosen as the prime meridian because the International Date Line, which has to be on the exact opposite side of the world from that meridian, runs through the least possible land area, thus minimising its disruptive effect.
Joel,Explain to me why America didn’t give the world its time zones,instead of giving it to the Brits.Boy you sure need to learn history.
More American appropriation of history? Britain invented the clock for navigation, thats why time starts in London.
Always proud to be British
He makes something simple sound complex...in the1880s Britain was easily the largest shipping nation by any measure, had been using GMT for 50 years or so and most of the world's shipping used British charts with the zero over Greenwich as there were very few alternatives - another overlooked fact is that Britain had surveyed the worlds oceans and coastlines long before anyone else had the capability or the wealth to do so. The meeting In the US was just a pound of smoke.
In some respects London is still the Head Office of shipping, with most vessels and cargoes insured by Lloyds of London and, I believe, all ships over 100 tons are required to be registered with Lloyds Register and meet their standards of construction and maintenance...
Joel next time you're in London it's well worth taking a trip to Greenwich. The observatory and museum are interesting with spectacular views of London. If you catch a boat from the embankment (by Westminster bridge) you also get some unique views and a guided commentary of all those historic buildings you'll pass by on your way to Greenwich.
The USA wasn’t a superpower back in Victoria’s age. Just because they hosted the conference doesn’t mean they had much influence in the decision.
Merry Christmas and New Year Joel, have a great one. Video was very interesting and educational. I certainly learned alot.
John Harrison came up with Ideas longitude to help with Navigation based time zones, this gave england an advantage in Trade and commerce.
Not just "England" but Britain. Scotland and England with Wales were in political union by then, after 1707.
And JH did not come up with the idea of longitude, that was well established. His genius was to find a practical way of measuring it, which he did with H4.
The Greenwich Meridian in London. You can be half in the Eastern and half in the Western hemisphere! You have crossed this!
Ya’ll know that time doesn’t really exist…it’s a concept invented by humans
The meridian line went through my primary schools hall, there was even a line in the floor. At least we knew our clocks were correct.
There is a brass inlaid line you can walk on outside the beautiful building
Do not dispute the fact but would dispute the implied relevance. Navigation of the world relied on using the observation of the sun and moon and its position in the sky. This will give you local time. If you have a time device set relative to a start position you can work out your east or west position on land ,sea, or ice. That very accurate spring balanced time device (from1657) later by Harrison (1693-1776) was engineered in the UK and the base noon readings where at Greenwich obsevatory (built 1676) which could confirm exact time astronomically. Also there where tables published which allowed night observations of key stars in the sky to allow North /South position of the observer by recording angle to the horizon at a given time.
We learned all this in primary school 🏫. I thought everyone knew about the time zones.
Love the understanding over the French 😃
The World Cup should have ours French 🇫🇷😠
Only an American can get jealous over this 😂
The zero longitude goes through Greenwich. And Mr Harrison invented the first reliable clock for oceans/marines shipping. This means that shipping navigation could be accurate. It had absolutely nothing to with trains or the lunacy which may have been going in the USA. This was sorted a few hundred years before trains existed. I never cease to be amazed at the ignorance ignorance of Americans to history.
Chester Arthur... is he really not known by the average US middle schooler? We learned at junior prep (🏴 58-63) that his parents came from N Ireland and that he liberalised US immigration laws. Funnily enough, we didn't learn about this conference he hosted. Just to prove, one's never too old to learn. 🤔
Most medieval world maps were centered on Jerusalem (or Mecca), known as Mappa Mundi. Changing to a Meridian latitude zeroed on London/Paris was not a great change. Especially after the Americas were added
So if you read or watch Jules vernes around the world in 80 days it is written in part about this. There is also some old film about the 13th hour involving a ship crossing the IDL theoretically if you had a fast ship or plane you could have a very long birthday…..
In the 1990's you could have your last coffee at Heathrow at 10.00 am, and your first coffee at JFK at 10.00 am, the same day using an obsolete aircraft called the Concorde.
All my life, I’ve realised that the world needs better Geography Teachers.
How true. This is basic geography and I was taught this in secondary/high school by the time I was 12.
I have nothing to add... just want to comment because I was born in Greenwich and have lived here my whole life.
I was both where time beginssssss.
Not finished the video yet but in case it doesn’t mention it, there is a big laser always on at Greenwich observatory showing the zero point time line. When I was a kid it was fun to jump from one side to the other pretending your time travelling.
There is also a shop in Greenwich called “the first shop in the world” because it’s the nearest shop to the zero point line.
Greenwich 100% is not as nice as you would expect it to be from a tourist perspective though... it’s got good things but the way south London has gone has kinda ruined a lot of it
I always like the fact that they needed a time zone to use in space and of because it was usa vs russia in space they needed to come to some kind of compromise and course decided on gmt!
Greenwich mean time east London there is a museum dedicated to this point . You stand on west one foot in the east there is a metal bar outside on the line you can stand on the line
Do you have Google in the USA? How about learning a bit of World History.
1829 Stephenson’s “Rocket” Train engine was invented by a Brit (now on display at York England).
1830 The first Public Railway ran from Stockton to Darlington in the UK with a timetable using local time.
1847 GMT was adopted across Britain so that all clocks and trains ran according to the same time and not local time.
1880 (This was33 years later) The USA and the rest of the world realised that the Brits were doing it all BRILLIANTLY and decided to join us and share the convention. It was the gift that the Brits gave to you and the world. The Americans did not give us GMT. So don’t let that Yankee swagger emerge into your commentary as it’s most unbecoming.
I am old enough to remember the Brain Drain in the 1950’s and 1960’s when the USA were seeking out the young scientific graduate talent from our British universities.
Get your dates correct mate.
I am from Darlington. The S&DR was opened in 1825, not 1830.
The Liverpool and Manchester, upon which Rocket ran, was opened in 1830.
@@andypandy9013 Oops, sorry. I must have misread my facts. I just wanted to give credit where it was due ie to the North East and not USA.
PS This old lady’s from Manchester so I do realise that’s where I crossed my 2 wires in the info. I do know you’re right but I was in a tizz trying to quickly correct the commentator’s erroneous assumption.
And we gave you John "Longitude" Harrison who made the first viable chronometer that meant you could accurately determine your East/West position.
If more than forty countries voted on the issue, the U.S. didn't just give it to the U.K.
Nadolig Hapus / Happy Christmas from Cymru 🏴 Wales
🎄🍾👌🏻🏴🇺🇸
I've been to Greenwich weather station and the Cutty Stark ( a big ship) used in the 1800, which is near by, it's very interesting but I wasn't told about this, it makes more sense now they have a weather vane that moves everyday at 12pm it goes up and down a spire and can be seen for miles, there are great views from Greenwich as it looks over London so weather, time and travel are all linked together with GMT, I highly recommend a visit next time your here 👍🤔✌
Way too simplified...
John Harrison, (born March 1693, Foulby, Yorkshire, Eng.-died March 24, 1776, London), English horologist who invented the first practical marine chronometer, which enabled navigators to compute accurately their longitude at sea.
I enjoyed this...he explained it really well xx
Because measurement is much more accurate now, the historic prime meridian set in the ground at Greenwich is not actually in the right place. However, it is only about 100 yards to the wast, so I think that was a jolly good attempt to define it 200 years ago, not having satellites, GPS, and the like. As for the bloody French, you will note that they refuse to be in the same time zone as us (although they ought to be), instead hitching their clocks with German ones. The Spanish used to be in the same time zone as us, but Franco changed it as a tribute to Hitler. The Portuguese did not.
If Washington had been chosen for 0 degrees then the international date line would have passed through China, Russia and a number of other countries with the ensuing chaos that would have caused
Explanation of lines of latitude 180 degrees north and 180 degrees south of the equator ??? 🤦🏼♂️ (minute 2:29) last time I navigated a ship it was 90 degrees north and south of equator .. 🤷🏼♂️
Finally someone commented on this egregious error! I was going to if I didn‘t find many comments on it.
The British invented (created) the modern world. Britain was the greatest nation in all history. Greater than the Greeks and the Romans.
First modern democracy, first to industrialise, first to create a society devoted to science, etc etc.
When The Guy said King of the Ocean for some reason Celine Dion started singing My Heart Will Go On! in my Head!
The navigation technology invented in Britain was the main reason but still a pretty informative & well presented video. Hope you had a good xmas btw JPS.
The Prime Meridian, the zero line, also passes through an edge of the Millennium Dome - now called the O2 Arena. The Dome is 365m in diameter representing the days in a year. It is held up by 12 yellow support towers, one for each month of the year, sticking out like a clock face marking the hours.
Thanks for this video I’ve learnt soo much 🇬🇧🇬🇧
"in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian."
I doubt you walked past the Greenwich observatory, it's nowhere near central London; it's tucked away to the east.
Britain established its own meridian, which passed through a point at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, in 1676. The Royal Navy charted huge areas of the globe with the first accurate timepieces (needed to calculate longitude) It was adopted in 1884 by the rest of the world. (PS we also invented railways).
Read a book called Longitude. n 1719 parliament offered prize of £20000 for anyone who could invent a device to measure Longitude. John Harrison did it in 1739