Ruth Belville

Elizabeth Ruth Belville ( born March 5, 1854 in London, † December 7, 1943 ibid ) was a British entrepreneur who sold more than four decades, the exact time. It was like this from a chronometer with the officially measured time (Greenwich Mean Time) at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and then attended subscribers in Inner London, who stopped their watches by the chronometer of Ruth Belville. This service was introduced in 1836 by Ruth Belvilles father and operated by her until 1939. Ruth Belville was a local celebrity due to their unusual activity and went as the " Greenwich Time Lady " in London's history a.

Biography

Ruth Belville was born on March 5, 1854 in the London Borough of Greenwich. Her father John Henry Belville, a native of France, was already 59 years old at the time of her birth, Ruth's mother Maria was his third wife. Ruth Belville had three older half- brothers and three older half sisters who were from the two previous marriages of the father, including the photographer Cecilia Louisa Glaisher (1828-1892), who had married the meteorologist James Glaisher.

John Henry Belville worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, where he joined the Astronomer Royal John Pond assisted in weather observations since 1811. In the years 1849 and 1850 Belville summed up his experience in dealing with thermometers and barometers in two manuals together (A Manual of the barometer, A Manual of the thermometer). Under Ponds successor George Biddell Airy took Belville 1836 the additional task of the regularly measured at the Royal Observatory Time, Greenwich Mean Time, to submit certain clients and watchmakers in London. For synchronizing the different clocks with the clock at the Royal Observatory used Belville an encompassed in silver chronometer, which was prepared in 1794 by John Arnold, and that could reflect the time exactly to the tenth of a second. The later only "Arnold" called chronometers to have been for Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of King George III, made ​​. Originally. It served Belvilles customers as the reference, according to which these could then adjust their own clocks.

When John Henry Belville died in 1856, his widow Mary the task to supply the man's customers regularly with the exact time. This business was the only source of income for Maria Belville. She searched several times a week the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and settled there to certify the accuracy of their "Arnold". Maria Belville ran the business until her 80th year. In October 1892 she went into retirement for health reasons in its place took Ruth Belville the company.

Although the General Post Office since the 1870s, the time telegram sent and 1882 with the Standard Time Company is a privately held company was founded, which had the transmission of time signals prescribed, Ruth Belville remained a loyal customer base. However, the number of subscribers to 200, which were still supplied by John Henry Belville with the time dropped to around 60 customers in 1908. Their annual income was in 1908 according to its own figures, about 200 pounds sterling. Many subscribers did not want to give up Ruth Belvilles services, as the "Arnold" had a higher accuracy than the electric clocks. Belvilles chronometer that was transported by it in a purse, every Monday at 9 clock was synchronized with the clock at Greenwich, the conformity of the times it has been confirmed by the Royal Observatory in writing.

Despite the small business customer base Ruth Belvilles excited envy the competition. In 1908 there was a spectacular incident when her St. John Wynne, CEO of the Standard Time Company, accused of unfair methods and old-fashioned service in a speech. Wynne's insults were published in the London press, however, proved to be a welcome publicity for Ruth Belville, which rose to as " Greenwich Time Lady " to a known beyond the borders of London beyond celebrity. Newspaper reporters scrambled to get interviews with her, photographs of Belville were published and even German newspapers reported on it.

In the following decades, Ruth Belville was a familiar figure in Greenwich and the City of London. The press became aware of Belville and their anachronistic acting service again and again, in 1936 she finally gave the BBC a detailed radio interview. Until recently, they had 40 to 50 customers, they also visited weekly in old age. Although the Royal Observatory beamed over the broadcaster the BBC in February 1924, the famous time signal with the six beeps from ( the Greenwich Time Signal ) and in 1936 its own time announcement as a telephone service a, but confessed it to continue to Belville and their company.

Only in 1939, at the age of 85 years, Ruth Belville retired. The remaining unmarried pensioner spent her final years in an apartment in London's Beddington, which she had in 1934 related. She died on 7 December 1943 at the age of 89 years of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Aftereffect

When Ruth Belville 1939 gave up her job as a saleswoman of the time, ended a 103 years -lasting tradition. Belville, had no children, and given the now -second transmission of time by telephone and radio saw the Royal Observatory in Greenwich is no need to continue Ruth Belvilles service by other people.

The prominent role of Ruth Belville and her parents in the history of horology at the Royal Observatory has been emphasized in several obituaries, among other items published in the magazine The Observatory and the Journal of the British Astronomical Association. The family-owned since 1836 chronometer, the Arnold 485/786, left Belville of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. It is now exhibited in the Clockmakers ' Museum in London's Guildhall.

In the decades following Ruth 's death Belvilles the performance of the Belville family was often mentioned as a side note in the history of the Greenwich Royal Observatory. A more detailed assessment was followed in 2008 published by the National Maritime Museum Biography Ruth Belville: The Greenwich Time Lady, which was reviewed in numerous magazines and newspapers, and thus the story of Ruth Belvilles moved back into the public.