Short, 9 minute, podcast about the origins of GPS, told by the original project leader.
Amazingly, the first people to receive a signal were students at Leeds University in the UK!
It’s on BBC Sounds. Available in the UK. You might be able to get it elsewhere.
In the late 1970s I was friendly with a guy who worked on the early systems.
Even then he told me that their company could position an oil platform directly over the hole/pipe previously bored by a drilling rig to within less than a couple of feet.
They were some of my regular drinking chums. One guy was doing a PhD at the time and the other was doing an undergrad final project on a Transit Navsat receiver at the next bench to where me and my project partner were working. He went on to do a PhD on satnav and on completing that he was headhunted and move to work in the states for Hughes initially.
Syledis most likely back then.
Shame they didn’t have GPS when they built that long corridor that had the kink in the middle (Leeds University). IIRC it was located near the Biology and Maths faculties and near the most excellent Paternosta lifts.
Good old Red Route (Level 10).
It was actually designed the way it appears, it wasn’t a case of the builders missed !
So you mean for over 30 years I’ve believed something that wasn’t true. I can’t even say I saw it on the internet…
I was based in the Materials Science (occasionally) building which was about as far away from there as you could get, so that’s my excuse. 
Why?
It’s where a covered walkway/bridge joins two buildings. E. C. Stoner building (Physics and Computing and stuff) when I was there and maths/environment sciences.
Here’s the maths building, built late 60s / early 70s.
This is the EC Stoner building, physics, environment sciences, stuff. Also built late 60s / 70s but not at exactly the same time as maths building.
Here’s both together.
Maths is about half the length of EC Stoner. There’s some steps and a covered bridge to join the two buildings.
Bridge / corridor
Disjoint! Maths on the left, EC Stoner on the right. North to the top. The corridor runs along the South side of Maths and North side of EC Stoner. The North side of EC Stoner corridor aligns with the middle of the corridor in Maths. This is because the bridges etc. were added to the design after one building had been started.
The whole campus is built on a hill and the idea was to start counting floors at the South of the campus and continue as you went up the hill. As there were bridges between buildings it helped to have a common reference. This corridor is known as Red Route / Level 10. So it’s the 10th floor. Except there are only 5 floors in this building! But was a useful reference.
All of these buildings are 50-60 years old now and they were quite new when I was there, a scary thought. Most are considered leading examples of Brutalist Architecture and are Grade II listed and are preserved.
Memories hey Andy @G8CPZ ?
(Images (c) Google Maps)
Leeds was on my list of Universities to go to. I remember leaving after my visit with a lasting impression of concrete. It was so long ago, I can’t remember what subject I had chosen (I ran away to sea instead), but the concrete impression has lasted!
I went for an interview at Leeds University in 1983 and this is when I was told the story about starting at each end and missing in the middle. Your explanation makes sense but perhaps the students prefer the myth!
I also went for interview at Reading University. They had just built a new library building except they had forgotten to take into account the weight of the books and were having to strengthen the foundations. Maybe that’s a myth too…
I was a Physics undergrad there in the early 70’s. Going frequently along that very long corridor - it was my first experience of running fast indoors, often being late for a lecture (and three decades before doing it again a few times carrying travel bags and dodging other passengers at Chicago O’Hare pre-9/11 as I tried to make my transatlantic flight home before they close the gate coz my connecting flight was late).
I found this blog online from Helen [unknown to me] which perfectly captures my memories about one aspect of the buildings:
Studying at Leeds University in the 1970s, I was scared of the paternoster (the open-sided lift which never stopped but moved round in a loop) which was the situated in the centre of the Roger Stevens Building. There were many urban myths associated with these lifts which were a feature of several university buildings around the country. The myths chiefly concerned what happened at the top and bottom of the lifts’ run. Some people said they crushed flat whilst others said they turned the other way up, doing a head-over-heels. Either way, death or serious injury was virtually guaranteed. Only the brave rode to the top of the paternoster to engage in potentially life-threatening empirical research.
I was more worried about getting an arm, a leg or my head caught between the constantly-moving lift and the fixed outer frame as one jumped in or out - a bit like James Bond in the lift fight in Diamonds are Forever.
Yes, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. We students preferred the engineering cock-up theory myth even though we knew it was very unlikely.
Ah, the old airport sprint. Done it a few times over the years. Normally I’ve found a huge stationary queue at the gate when I’ve arrived and then spend 10-15mins sweating and catching my breath when I could have sauntered up all relaxed and walked on to the plane
Mrs. FMF (ex-Leeds) was really freaked by the Paternosters and never used them. I went over a few times, very disappointing apart from the chain you could see and stick your fingers in if you were that way inclined. The UK banned new installations of these lifts in 1974 according a BBC video about them on YouTube and that means the Roger Stevens Bldg must have been opened before then. It also explains why they always appear to have wood/Teak panelling finish and look dated now.
Apparently there is still one operational in Sheffield University. Arts building.
Going over the top or round the bottom is discouraged as it unbalances the mechanism and cause it to fail leading to long periods of downtime.
The trick that we (and probably countless others played) was to go over the top and then invert oneself when out of sight to unnerve those waiting to go down. It was also a way of queue jumping the down queue.
Yeah, that happened to me too. I had the same thing flying into LHR and running like crazy to make the Glasgow Shuttle plane only to sit onboard sweating like a pig and breathing like I had just run a marathon, with other passengers turning their noses up. How I hated so many aspects of international business travel.
That was all pre-9/11. Since then, there’s no way the crew would let you board just as they were closing the plane doors.
It was always happening in the Fletcher Building at De Montfort Uni, Leicester. Downtime seemed to be significant towards the end of the summer term. 
It seems these dangerous lifts were installed only at universities. I suppose back then [1970s] students were considered expendable, as were kids in general in my childhood [1950s]. Nowadays the pendulum has swung the other way.
GEC Marconi at Borehamwood had the horrid things
If you study the dynamics of lifts, you see why they were so popular in Universities.
In any building with many floors there is a constant movement of people so you need several traditional lifts. But in places like Universities, you get bursts of large movements of people every hour or so as lectures start/stop and students have to move lecture theatre or lab. In Leeds case, the main centralised lecture theatre for many subjects was the Roger Stevens Bldg which was about 10-15mins walk from the departments it served. It served about 5500 students at any time.
Paternoster lift cabins may only hold 2 people but they continuously serve. A 6 floor building can have up to 12 people moving up and 12 moving down at the same time. You tend to wait about 10-15secs for the next cabin to arrive. They move slowly as the speed has to be slow enough to get on or off. Classic lifts with doors move much faster as you only get on/off when it is stationary. But there is a lot of time waiting for doors to open/close, movement to start and to stop and align with the floor and for people to shuffle in and out. If you have been in a big lift, more than 10 people, you’ll know if takes “for ever” for everyone to get in, shuffle to the back and look at the ceiling. The stop/start/load/unload time on each floor becomes the dominant time.
There have been plenty of studies done that showed that 1 or 2 Paternosters can move more people than traditional lifts. So they were ideal for the passenger flow in universities. The issue is they are scary when you first see them and try them but repeated use makes you comfortable in them. They were not really dangerous as they all had flaps that moved so bits of people sticking out of the cabins would move the flaps and trip the motor stop. And unlike ordinary lifts, the cabins can’t drop if the cables break.
Going to work 50-100 years back was dangerous, think of how many people were killed or injured in factories, workshops, construction. We’ve decided killing your staff is not cost effective and made work safer so looking at a Paternoster is going to freak most people.
Other reasons they don’t fit them any more apart from potential safety issues are you can’t carry goods in them and anyone who has mobility issues can’t use them.
At uni I used the stairs. So much quicker.
