Broad Arrow | Hacker News Reader

Broad Arrow

en.wikipedia.org

30 pointscurtis9 comments

Funny what turns up on HN. You notice these everywhere, if you keep your eyes out.

All over the UK and the world on survey points, church spires, old chimneys, apparently random walls - anything that could once have been prominent enough to be a trig point or benchmark [1]. I've bumped into OS survey plates, complete with arrow, in India, Malaysia and Brunei jungle without trying. There must be billions of the things!

It used to turn up on every piece of military stores. Every shirt, rifle, bullet, knife, teaspoon, jerry can and tool. There's at least 3 in my kitchen cutlery drawer, and a few more in the garage. :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmark_(surveying)

> Acts of Parliament in 1711, 1722 and 1772 (Timber for the Navy Act 1772) extended protection finally to 12-inch-diameter (300 mm) trees and resulted in the Pine Tree Riot that same year. This was one of the first acts of rebellion by the American colonists leading to the American Revolution in 1775, and a flag bearing a white pine is said to have been flown at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

I’ve never heard of the Pine Tree Riot before. Life, liberty, and property. Where in this case property would have been a tree in your woods that stood as a symbol and constant reminder of a lack of both liberty and property.

What constitutes as ownership in this context when dealing with nature is interesting.

Can't remember how far back it goes, but the UK had long restricted timber suitable for masts to make sure the Navy got first pick. Wouldn't be surprised to find timber restrictions in the UK went back to Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. Trouble was all the good ones were felled first, and much of Europe wanted their own masts too. So Spain, France and UK often had to look to colonies by the 1600s and 1700s for big timber.

I once went on holiday in Croatia, on the dalmatian coast. It’s gorgeous, but the peaks and upper slopes of the hills facing the Adriatic are arid bare earth and rock. In some places it look like a moonscape. Apparently all the trees were felled by the Venetians to build their merchant fleets and the hillsides have never recovered. Scotland used to be covered in forests – all those heather-covered uplands were stripped of trees, largely for shipbuilding.

> What constitutes as ownership in this context when dealing with nature is interesting.

Everything you can own is part of nature. Even if you employ a restrictive definition of nature, everything was still part of it at some point.

Didn't realise the connection with the OS Benchmarks - there's one on the wall next to my garden gate.

Thanks for posting :-)

Is that a neo Armstrong jet cyclone Armstrong cannon?

Cool. Why did you post it to hn though?

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