Oxford Triangulation
by the Night Patrol
An interesting Triangulation was acheived by two members of the
party whohad brought a motor car with them. This device, little
more than a box withwheels and an internal combustion engine,
enabled them to roam around athigh speed, often leaving the town
itself for more rural areas. A chieffactor in these nocturnal
derives by the Night Patrol was to find a suitableplace to sleep
undisturbed by the police or other undesirable elements.The first
night a field was found in the vicinity of Shepherd's Pit, a
hamlethalf a mile north of Bayswater Mill, close to Stanton St,
John. The secondnight was spent in a gateway leading to the
Templar's Court Country Club,premises owned by Magdalen
College.
Imagine our suprise when it turned out that these two points were
very closeto forming an equilateral triangle with St. Margaret's
Well! The error wasbetween 30 and 80 metres in a total distance of
8 Kilometres. This is alevel of accuracy that even Sony are hard
put to match with their latestsatellite technology.
"Now geographers and urban planners, as well as traffic engineers
anddevelopers, are enthralled by the imminent prospect of basing
the managementof complex urban systems -traffic flows, zoning, and
so on-on LANDSAT satelliteslinked to GIS [Geographical Information
Systems] software. Since the imageresolution capabilities of
commercial satellite systems are now approachingthe threshold of
distinguishing individual automobiles, and perhaps evenpeople and
their pets, it will be possible to monitor the movement of
entirepopulations."
Mike Davis interviewed by Covert Action in Clash #7 (available from
StichtingMarinus vd Lubbe, Postbus 11149, 1001 GL Amsterdam,
Netherlands for £1.50)
We felt much relief when careful map work revealed that the centre
of theequilateral triangulation we had carried out was located at
Zippo's circusin the park by Headington Hill. Although one of the
sides of this trianglewent through the centre of Temple Cowley
(which got its name from the landdonated by Queen Matilda to the
Knights Templar in 1135), we could findno link with outbreak of
joy-riding and ensuing confrontation with the policewhich took
place at Rose Hill on the Friday night.
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