John Harrison: Inventor and Longitude Hero

szczys writes: Here's an interesting fact: when at sea you can't establish your longitude without a reliable clock. You can figure out latitude with a sextant, but not longitude. Early clocks used pendulums that don't work on a rocking boat. So in the 1700s the British government offered up £20,000 for a reliable clock that would work at sea. John Harrison designed a really accurate ocean-worthy clock after 31 years of effort and was snubbed for the prize which would be £2.8 Million at today's value. After fighting for the payout for another 36 years he did finally get it at the ripe old age of 80. The methods he used to build this maritime chronometer were core to every wrist and pocket watch through the first third of the 20th Century. One of his timepieces, designated Clock B, was declared by Guinness to be the world's most accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum swinging in free air' more than 250 years after it was designed.

Comments

Re:Dava Sobel

[Dutch Gun]

I never read the book, but watched a really interesting documentary about his lifelong pursuit of that prize. It's really quite fascinating if you have any interest in maritime history.

It's also a bit sad how he was completely snubbed and denied proper credit for his inventions (in addition to the monetary prize for many years) at the time simply because of his social status (a relatively uneducated craftsman). From what I remember, it literally took the King of England to force the issue after he saw those amazing devices in action, and heard how irrationally stubborn the prize committee was being.