Department No. XI · Verification Office
How we know nothing happened.
Every uneventful event above is documented in an archive, a register, or a broadcast log. Dullness is not assumed. It is checked.
Method
A dull claim requires a dull proof. The Department therefore accepts only three kinds of evidence: minutes taken at the time, registers kept as a matter of routine, and broadcasts transmitted to persons who wrote down what they heard.
Procedure is as follows. First, the date is confirmed against at least one independent listing — a Radio Times, a Post Office circular, a King's proclamation. Second, the absence of incident is confirmed by the absence of a corresponding file: no accident report, no correction, no angry letter that survived filing. Third, the entry is read aloud in Room 4 · Floor 2. If no one looks up, it is admitted.
House lore, viz. Footnote 12, is verified to a lower but still soporific standard: one minute book and the recollection of the porter, who confirms the biscuits were plain.
Table of footnotes and their records
- 01 No News, 1930
- BBC Written Archives; Radio Times.
- 02 The Pips, 1924
- Royal Observatory Greenwich; BBC logs.
- 03 Speaking Clock, 1936
- BT Archives.
- 04 Shipping Forecast, 1924
- Met Office; BBC Programme Records.
- 05 Census, 1801
- The National Archives, HO 67.
- 06 Zebra Crossing, 1951
- Ministry of Transport MT 39.
- 07 Postcode Trial, 1959
- Postal Museum Archive.
- 08 MOT Tests, 1960
- Ministry of Transport registers.
- 09 Dagen H, 1967
- Swedish National Archives.
- 10 Decimal Day, 1971
- Decimal Currency Board; Bank of England.
- 11 Silence, 1919
- The National Archives CAB 24; The Times.
- 12 Founding Minute, 2019
- Institute Minute Book No. 1.
- Consultation
- Scholars wishing to consult the pips are advised that they occur hourly and cannot be hastened. Bring a pencil. Bring a second pencil in case the first proves exciting.
- Standard
- House lore is verified to a lower but still soporific standard: one minute book and the porter, who confirms the biscuits were plain.