Cornwall is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula. Its coastline is characterised by steep cliffs and, to the south, several rias, including those at the mouths of the rivers Fal and Fowey. It includes the southernmost point on Great Britain, Lizard Point, and forms a large part of the Cornwall National Landscape. The national landscape also includes Bodmin Moor, an upland outcrop of the Cornubian batholith granite formation. The county contains many short rivers; the longest is the Tamar, which forms the border with Devon. (Full article...)
The remains of a blowing house near Black Tor on Dartmoor.
A blowing house or blowing mill was a building used for smeltingtin in Cornwall and on Dartmoor in Devon, in South West England. Blowing houses contained a furnace and a pair of bellows that were powered by an adjacent water wheel, and they were in use from the early 14th century until they were gradually replaced by reverberatory furnaces in the 18th century. The remains of over 40 blowing houses have been identified on Dartmoor. (Full article...)
John Arnold was the first to design a watch that was both practical and accurate, and also brought the term "chronometer" into use in its modern sense, meaning a precision timekeeper. His technical advances enabled the quantity production of marine chronometers for use on board ships from around 1782. The basic design of these has remained, with a few modifications unchanged until the late twentieth century. His legacy includes, together with Abraham-Louis Breguet, being one of the inventors of the modern mechanical watch. One of his most important inventions, the overcoil balance spring, is still used in most mechanical wristwatches.
It was from around 1770 that Arnold developed the portable precision timekeeper, almost from the point where John Harrison ended his work in this field. But, compared to Harrison's complicated and expensive watch, Arnold's basic design was simple whilst consistently accurate and mechanically reliable. Importantly, the relatively simple and conventional design of his movement facilitated its production in quantity at a reasonable price whilst also enabling easier maintenance and adjustment.
Three elements were necessary for this achievement:
A balance design that enabled compensation for the effect of temperature on the balance spring
A method for adjusting the balance spring, so that the balance oscillates in equal time periods, even through different degrees of balance arc (Full article...)
...that the world record for the biggest ever pub quiz was broken in 2007 by punters all over Cornwall as part of a mass event to bring lottery funds to the county?
It has, therefore, been a favorite boast of the people of Wales and Cornwall, that the original British stock flourishes in its unmixed purity only among them.
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