Most people by now knew that the earth was round but many still believed it to be the center of the universe with all other celestial objects rotating around it. To think otherwise was heresy. Remember Galileo? The Catholic Church has recently publicly apologized for having tried him but during his time life for a practicing scientist, including Galileo and Kremer, wasn’t easy. Galileo, using his newly manufactured telescope discovered that Jupiter had satellites rotating around itself. Whereupon the bishop of Pisa issued a summon stating that it was sinful to look through a telescope because it showed objects that didn’t exist.

Gerard Kremer studied Christian doctrine, dialectics and Latin. In 1530 he entered the University of Louvain (Belgium) to study the humanities and philosophy and graduated in 1532. Then, in line with the fashion of the time Gerard acquired a Latin name, Mercator – Latin being the language of scientists and intellectuals. By the way, did you know that King Henry VIII (the one with the eighth wives) was also a skilled Latinist? Eventually Henry VIII came to odds with the Catholic Church, but at the beginning of the Protestant controversy he sided with Rome against Luther. In fact Henry published a pamphlet titled "How the theories of Martin Luther prove him conclusively to be an ass". Whereupon Luther replied with another pamphlet in which he called Henry "King of Asses".

Back to Mercator. Under the guidance of Gemma Frisius,the leading theoretical mathematician in Belgium, who was also a physician and astronomer, Mercator mastered mathematics, geography, and astronomy. Frisius and Mercator also frequented the workshop of Gaspar à Myrica, an engraver and goldsmith. The combined work of these three men soon made Louvain an important center for the making of globes, maps, and astronomical instruments. In 1534 Mercator married Barbara Schellekens, by whom he had six children.

Mercator quickly acquired the skills of an engraver, calligrapher and map maker. In fact, he invented the ‘Italic’ font, now a popular term among all users of word processors. In 1540 he published a manual on italic lettering, the Literarum Latinarum quas Italicas cursoriasque vocant scribende ratio (Of Latin lettering which is called cursive Italian) for which he engraved the wood blocks himself.

These were the times when Western Europe began to divide itself into Protestant and Catholics. Mercator had religious doubts, as he could not reconcile the biblical account of the origin of the universe with that of Aristotle.

In 1544, he was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of heresy. His inclination to Protestantism, and frequent absences from Louvain to gather information for his maps, had aroused suspicions; he was one of 43 citizens so charged. But the university authorities stood behind him. He was released after seven months, and resumed his former way of life. He obtained a privilege to print and publish books and was free to continue his scientific studies.

However, he prudently moved to Germany permanently to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleve. Once there he assisted the duke in establishing a grammar school by helping to design its curriculum. After opening a cartographic workshop and engaging his own engravers, he returned to his main interest, making maps. Wilhelm, Duke of Cleve officially named him "court cosmographer", a title that would look good on any business card.

Mercator continued to publish maps with beautiful Italic fonts, then he began to prepare a series of publications intended to describe the creation of the world and its subsequent history. He called this work an ‘Atlas’. Though he did not finish the work, the term is still used to indicate a collection of maps.

While in Germany he perfected his unique map projection, which enabled mariners to steer a course over long distances by plotting straight lines without continual adjustment of compass readings. This technique made his name immortal as the "Mercator projection," which he used on his map of the world in 1569.

And so it came to pass that Mercator created the first map where you can see the world all at once. For the unfamiliar this is the type of map where Greenland appears bigger than Australia and the North and South poles are stretched to be as long as the equator. Small price to pay, I say, to have a global look - quite apart from the said advantages in navigation. Besides, without a Mercator projection there would be no Geochron.

Geochron is the invention of Mr. Jim Kilberg who was born in Luxembourg, not many miles away from Mercator’s birthplace. Mr. Kilberg, who designed and built his first Geochron in the United States, gave the breath of life to Mercator’s map. We can rightfully think of the Geochron as a thinking map or a map come alive.

The live aspect of the Geochron has to do with two features:

1.    The map is in constant movement in accordance with the rotation of the earth. Actually, the Geochron contains two identical maps slowly rotating so that for the observer there is never a discontinuity.

2.     The map is dynamically lit from behind and the lighting reproduces with extreme accuracy the areas that the sun illuminates during the day. Conversely, "… a great cause of the night is lack of the sun" (As You Like It)– and the Geochron, accordingly, darkens the areas in the night.

But the earth is tilted on her axis, which gives rise to the seasons, which change the duration of days and nights. Geochron handles this very cleverly and keeps an accurate pace with the seasons. During winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Mercator projection converts the line dividing day from night into the outline of a bell. The bell changes day by day, hour by hour, gradually, following the flow of the seasons. The inside of the bell is illuminated (day). Accordingly, in winter, the top (smallest part) of the bell is at the very North and at the December solstice no daylight reaches any point from the Polar Circle upwards. In summer the reverse happens, the bell is widest at the North and smallest in the Southern Hemisphere. At the Equinoxes the bell divides itself into two straight lines, showing accurately that on those days, and those days alone, all over the world the day is as long as the night.

The center of the Geochron is midday, or rather where in the world is midday at any time. As the earth rotates, the Geochron Mercator map advances. So, if for example, it is Midday in Hawaii you will see that in San Francisco is 3 pm and depending on the season you see how soon it will be sunset. Equally, you will see that in Sidney it is 9 am and further West in Australia you will see the sun (light line) advancing, etc. All Europe will be in the dark, being 11 pm in London and 12 am in Rome. But at the Summer Solstice, you will see that in Northern Scandinavia and Russia, the sunlight is still on.

At any time on our planet there are two dates, the division being the date line in the Pacific, West of Hawaii. So if it is 12 pm Tuesday in San Francisco, it is 6 am Wednesday in Tokyo. Geochron has (2) moving date (day of the week) scales showing (at any time) time, date and day of the week, West and East of the Pacific Date line.

One of the many curious observations possible with the Geochron has to do with the sun itself. With the passing of the seasons, the position on the earth where the sun is directly overhead at midday varies. This is also called the 'zenith', a word derived from the Arabic 'al-jamt', meaning 'a way of the head', or 'what is above the head'.  The position of the zenith shifts towards the Northern Hemisphere in the Summer, and to the South in the Winter. But this position changes not according to a straight line. Rather, the sun follows (clockwise) the path of a figure of eight during the year. Geochron shows you at any moment of your day and night wherever in the Earth is the zenith.

On the practical side, the Geochron is the perfect executive office artifact. I purposely did not say tool, but you can consider it such. You do not want to wake up an important business contact, while he is in the middle of his sleep, "sleep, that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, nature’s soft nurse.. etc." (Henry IV, part 2)

    Or you may wish to catch him at the right time, just when he arrives at the office.

    Whatever use you may make of Geochron, you will find it a continual fountain of discoveries.

As days go by, and seasons change, you find endless odds and endless ends of geographical and geophysical information. What is north or south of what, who is west or east of whom, who gets more light, who gets less, who gets it sooner, who gets it later, who is enjoying his Saturday, who is still working on Friday. Where in the world is dawn and "the gracious light lifts up his burning head", where at sunset "the sun begins to gild the western sky". Where is spring, when "the daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, take the winds of March with beauty", where is summer, ripe with Midsummer Night’s Dreams, where is the chiding autumn, where is the angry winter.

And while Geochron may not reveal the ultimate mystery of things, it will ever give you matter to think and talk about.

When Mr. Gorbachev first visited the United States in the 80s, triggering with this event the end of the cold war, the President of the United States gave him a gift. The gift was to be a symbol of American ingenuity – do you know what it was? You guessed it, a Geochron.