:
: Francisco: you know, one of the great things
: about the internet (and OnTheDash and
: Chronocentric) is that you never know where
: your interests and exploration will lead
: you. one month ago, the Mercury missions
: were things I watched on a blurry
: black-and-white TV, as a 7-year-old kid.
: Now, I am reexamining this fascinating era
: of science, politics AND WATCHES, through
: the NASA archives, photos, etc.!!

: So I am no expert in the early days of space
: flight -- X15 or Mercury.

: Based on what I have learned over the past
: month (as I have studied the NASA archives),
: I do not believe that the instrument panel
: shown in the diagram was ever actually built
: or used in a Mercury capsule. It appears
: that the diagram, with its multiple clocks /
: timers, was simplified to what we see in
: Friendship 7.

: On the X-15, that stopwatch is almost certainly
: a Minerva. Strange to see the decimal
: minutes (rather than seconds), but perhaps
: that was the system / count that they used.
: something else for us to explore and learn!!

: thanks for the info and the super scans!!

: Jeff

:
: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I agree with you. The 1st scan is probably just a design and i believe it would be very difficult to fit all those instruments to that "timing plate" with standard equipment (the dials would have to be of minute diameter). Perhaps the time to design from scratch all those timers was in collision with the whole project deadlines. We (I) can clearly see that on the photo of the mercury capsule, although blurred, there's hardly enough space to fit a single watch/timer.

About the stopwach on the X-15, I guess you meant decimal seconds instead of minutes. From what i've read, the whole experience was very hard, with extreme temperatures and heat radiation from the windshield, lots of shaking at high mach speeds that the pilot would have a really tough job just to concentrate, let alone fly that beast. So I guess the decimal seconds timer was the best thing bcs (IMHO) it's more intuitive to read (the bursts of the rocket engine were not longer than 80 to 120 seconds, as described here
)

Meanwhile i found other goddies...A X24-B scan showing another Minerva decimal timer on a priviledged position on the cockpit.

Regards
Francisco.