Prime Meridian Zero Degrees Scarf

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A grey cotton scarf featuring our iconic 00º 00’ 00” Prime Meridian of the World design. This is the perfect souvenir from the home of time. The Greenwich Meridian was chosen as th e Prime Meridian of the World in 1884. Forty-one delegates from 25 nations met in Washington DC for the International Meridian Conference. By the end of the conference, Greenwich had won the prize of Longitude 0º by a vote of 22 to 1 against (San Domingo), with two abstentions (France and Brazil). In 1884 the Prime Meridian was defined by the position of the large 'Transit Circle' telescope in the Observatory’s Meridian Observatory. The transit circle was built by Sir George Biddell Airy, the 7th Astronomer Royal, in 1850. The cross-hairs in the eyepiece of the Transit Circle precisely defined Longitude 0° for the world. As the Earth’s crust is moving very slightly all the time the exact position of the Prime Meridian is now moving very slightly too, but the original reference for the prime meridian of the world remains the Airy Transit Circle in the Royal Observatory, even if the exact location of the line may move to either side of Airy’s meridian. This scarf is exclusive to Royal Museums Greenwich and is part of our Prime Meridian & GMT collection. Show more