Clocks in Urban Infrastructure
David Rooney
We are used to seeing clocks on the streets of our towns and cities designed to tell us the time, whether on churches and public buildings or fixed outside shops and mounted in roundabouts and railway stations. But public clocks are only one type of clock we routinely encounter when out and about in daily life. There is a huge network of clocks hidden from view which help make cities operate. In the December meeting, David Rooney will be talking about the clocks that have been embedded into urban systems, from street lighting and fire alarm networks to traffic signals and taxicabs, as well as underpinning modern technologies as diverse as satellite navigation and financial trading.
David Rooney is Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, London. He has recently completed a major study of urban traffic congestion and his latest book, Mathematics: How It Shaped Our World will be published on 8 December. This coincides with the opening of the Museum’s much-anticipated Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid, of which David is Lead Curator. He is a Liveryman and Past Steward of the Clockmakers’ Company, a Council Member of the Antiquarian Horological Society and a Trustee of the Clockworks Trust based in South London.
Monthly branch meetings are normally held at the The White Hart Barn in Godstone
THE WHITE HART BARN
(Godstone Village Hall)
GODSTONE
SURREY RH9 8DU
7.30 pm for 8.00 pm Start