Changing The World??

Gerrard Mercator

Gerrard Mercator

In March 1512, on the plains of Flanders, Belgium, perhaps better known more recently to us as the scene of the tragic battles of the Somme and Passchedale in the Great War of 1914-18, Henrietta and Glibert Kemer were blessed with the birth of their 7th child,a son called Gerrard.

Times were hard for the peasant family, the population was soaring, space and land limited, a new term had emerged to describe their class, ‘Robbotten’ meaning a slave, laborer, a sweat…

a Robot…

Gerrard’s life was by no means easy, he survived wars, famine, plague and at one time imprisonment by the inquisition.

Yet the 16th century is known as ‘the age of discovery’. Gerard grew up with tales of daring voyages to new and abundant lands. The existence of a 4th continent promising riches beyond belief was common knowledge.

The recent invention of the printing press made possible broad sheets. Printed accounts, with woodcut drawings for the illiterate, about voyages of, among others, Christoper Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci.

These broadsheets were circulated along the thriving trade conduits of the rivers in Flanders.Trade and thus information came from all over the known world…

When 3rd Rate is Better Than 1st Rate

The Battle of Britain,

The Battle of Britain,

Another lesson from History…

When 3rd Rate is Better Than 1st Rate.

In 1940 Hitler’s armed forces had overrun Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and then France, who signed an armistice on 22nd June 1940.

Winston Churchill(the British Prime Minister) had ordered the implementation of operation Dynamo, the emergency plan to evacuate British and allied troops and equipment from the French port of Dunkirk to the British mainland.

By the 4th of June some 338,226 troops (and very little heavy equipment) had been brought across the English channel.

Britain was, in effect, under siege.

In one of his many famous speeches to the British Parliament Churchill spoke these words…

The Conquest of Time

SHIP-BANNER3Here is another lesson from history…

The Conquest of Time. (and the importance of developing the right business relationships)

The measurement of time is taken for granted in this atomic clock age,

But it was not always so.

In fact an accurate and robust method of time measurement was vital to enable shipping to navigate at sea with confidence.

Whilst Latitude is simple to measure Longitude is less so and this problem resulted in substantial loss of life and assets through shipwreck.

Even experienced Ships Masters could find themselves hundreds of miles off course.

In 1714, the British Government offered, by Act of Parliament, a solution which could….