Centuries-Old Longitude Clock Runs Again

douglips writes "BBC News has published a story about John Harrison's H4 chronometer and how it has been wound up for the UK's National Science Week. After 40 years of work [Harrison] proved in 1764 that a clock could be used to locate a ship's position at sea with extraordinary accuracy." Ah, the GPS system of its day. T. adds: This is the timekeeping device which Dava Sobel wrote about in Longitude .

Comments

Re:H.4 Timepiece Background

[beee]

ne1 here
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A work of genius

[(outer-limits)]

Read the book for an amazing insight into a work of genius. The days when a craftsman was exactly that.

Test your IQ!

Re:Pratchett and Time

[nickynicky9doors]

I stopped reading Prachett about eight years ago and even then the initial premise had been played out. The first books made me laugh raucously outloud.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

[Anonymous Coward]

Today's word is:

• E-L-E-P-H-A-N-T

(This is not a secret message.)

Re:PLEASE READ BEFORE MODDING

[Anonymous Coward]

you're an idiot.

\m/

[vena]

That is what screwed everyone up at the time, because the majority of folks were into heavy metal

ROCK.

OT, I know, but it must be said

[Anonymous Coward]

This page widening crap is really getting annoying. Believe it or not, some of us *enjoy* reading /. at -1, and these posts make the page unreadable. Editors should be given the ability to delete these posts. It's not censorship, because these posts are really not speech. They aren't intended to be read, they are intended to make other people's comments unreadable, and that is not acceptable.

Please, stop these crapflooders from ruining everyone's experience.

Glorifying old technologies under Nationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

I had to repeat this beccause of poor moderation...

Britain should review why USA took tech lead 1800s and 1900s instead of endlessly glorifying this achievement.

Of the top 100 most vital inventions from 1850 to 1950 only one was a British and 99 were american inventions.

The one Brirish contribution was the Jet Engine, but they had to "give it away for free" to usa military as part of war debt so essentially it is american in a roundabout way.

Britain spends all its BBC documentary dollars reliving its conquest and Imperial domination empire years again and again.

Oh how british: a perfect clock to win a prize that Britain was unwilling to honor as the prize winner...

They should instead study how Americans patented and created the top 99 technological marvels of the years between 1850 and 1950 and quit being maudlin and nostalgic about the British Empire years.

They are a dying irrelevant kingdom of socialist welfare programs.

Oh thats right everything hostile on slashdot is automatically a troll eh?

Well then do not COMMENT, do not REPLY but not because this is a troll (its not) but because by requesting you not to reply i prove logically and 'de facto' that this is NOT a TROLL. The definition of a troll is that a troller wants a reply or two. I want no replies I said my piece. Go write your own opinions elsewhere and wuit using your British Mod points to stiffle and censor american Free Speech.

Not really a chronometer, but a shovel.

[istartedi]

A shovel, you say? Daft!