It’s not often we can date a nineteenth century photograph to the precise minute it was taken. This one shows a cannon on the roof of the Castle Keep at 12.59pm on August 17th 1863, it was about to be fired for the first time by an electrical signal from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. You can see the cables attached to it.
Newcastle was hosting the British Association For The Advancement Of Science, with lectures and demonstrations of scientific innovation taking place at venues throughout the town. The River Tyne Commissioners used the latest technology to impress the visiting dignitaries, synchronising time with another city by means of a Time Gun, which had never been done before in Britain.
Scotland’s capital city already had a Time Gun that fired at one o’clock every day, using a signal from the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh that provided true Greenwich Mean Time. Captains of ships needed this accuracy to set their chronometers before leaving port, and it was decided this would also be useful to mariners on the Tyne. The signal was transmitted from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh via a telegraph office on Grey Street, and onwards to the Castle.
There had been a cannon on the roof of the Castle Keep for many years, but its firing was confined to times of celebration as it was a dangerous business. In 1812, John Robson was saluting the Mayor and managed to blow his right hand off, then he stumbled backwards and fell over the side of the Castle to his death. On another occasion, burning wadding from the cannon fell onto the Two Bulls Heads behind the Black Gate, which lost its roof in the ensuing blaze.
Newcastle’s Time Gun was a more modern weapon and was only intended to be fired at 1pm during the visit of the British Association. But other towns and cities introduced them too, so it was a matter of local honour that the original one in Newcastle should be kept going. However, it was considered a nuisance in the town because the loud bang caused horses to bolt in the street, and there was still a problem with falling wadding, which started another fire in the street below.
The Time Gun worked intermittently for the next decade or so due to problems with the signal from Edinburgh, and was fired for the last time at one o’clock on Wednesday, January 14th, 1874.
Photo Credit: W. Embleton Collection.