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Ruth Belville: the Greenwich Time Lady
David Rooney, Curator of Timekeeping at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Astronomer John Belville, his wife and their daughter Ruth made a living selling Greenwich time to Londoners, setting a pocket watch by the Royal Observatory's clocks before carrying it around to subscribers. The scheme only ended in 1939 following the arrival of the speaking clock. This talk, by the author of a forthcoming book on the Belvilles, tells the surprising story of London's time carriers.