John Harrison (P.L. Tassaert's half-tone print of Thomas King's original 1767 portrait of John Harrison, located at the Science and Society Picture Library, London)

John Harrison (March 24, 1693–March 24, 1776) was an English clockmaker, who designed and built the world's first successful chronometer (maritime clock), one whose accuracy was great enough to allow the determination of longitude over long distances. Image File history File links John_Harrison_Uhrmacher. ... Image File history File links John_Harrison_Uhrmacher. ... March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in leap years). ... Events January 11 - Eruption of Mt. ... March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in leap years). ... This article is about the year 1776. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs clocks. ... A chronometer is a timekeeper precise enough to be used as a portable time standard, usually in order to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. ... A clock (from the Latin cloca, bell) is an instrument for measuring time. ... Longitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter λ, describes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north-south line called the Prime Meridian. ...

Overview of the problem

A place's longitude is how far around the Earth it is from a reference point, say London — usually measured in degrees (360 degrees is a complete circuit of the world). Many solutions were proposed for how to determine longitude at the end of a sea voyage, and therefore the longitude of the place you have just discovered (in case, for instance, you want to go back one day, or simply put it on a map). Most of these relied on a comparison of local time with the time at a given place (such as London). Many of these methods relied on astronomical observations relying on the "clockwork" nature of motions of heavenly bodies. Harrison instead set out to solve the problem in probably the most direct way: by producing a reliable clock. The theory was simple and had been first proposed by Frisius. The difficulty, however, was producing a clock which could maintain accurate time on a long sea voyage in the roughest conditions and in widely-varying temperature, pressure, and humidity. Many leading scientists including Newton, Huygens and Frisius were pessimistic that such a clock could ever be built and had more optimism for astronomical observations (such as the Lunar Distance Method). However, if such a clock were built and set at noon in London at the start of a voyage, it would subsequently always tell you how far from noon it was in London at that second, regardless of where you had traveled. By referring to the clock when it is noon locally (i.e. the sun is at its highest in the sky where you are) you can almost read directly from the clock face how far round the world you are from London. For instance, if it is midnight in London when it is noon locally, then you are half way round the world, (e.g. 180 degrees of longitude) from London. Gemma Frisius, seventeenth-century woodcut by E. de Boulonois For the crater, see Gemma Frisius (crater) Gemma Frisius (or Reiner Gemma, December 9, 1508 - May 25, 1555) was a mathematician, cartographer and instrument maker. ...

Harrison in Lincolnshire

Harrison was born at Foulby, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire. Around 1700, the family moved to the North Lincolnshire village of Barrow upon Humber. First following his father's trade as a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time. Legend has it that at the age of six while in bed with smallpox, he was given a watch to amuse himself, supposedly spending hours listening to it and studying its moving parts. As clocks and watches of all kinds were rare and expensive at the time, and Harrison came from a family of only modest means, it is likely the legend is false or the timepiece was broken enough to be worth little. Foulby is a village near Nostell between Crofton and Ackworth Moor Top, on the A638 east-south east of the city of Wakefield, in the county of West Yorkshire, England, south of Leeds. ... Statistics Population: 79,885 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SE335205 Administration Metropolitan Borough: City of Wakefield Metropolitan county: West Yorkshire Region: Yorkshire and the Humber Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: West Yorkshire Historic county: Yorkshire (West Riding) Services Police force: West Yorkshire Police Ambulance service... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... St Clements Church, Worlaby North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority in England, established in April 1996, one of the first unitary councils. ... Barrow upon Humber is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. ... A carpenter is a skilled craftsman who performs carpentry -- a wide range of woodworking that includes constructing buildings, furniture, and other large objects out of wood. ... Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) was a highly contagious viral disease unique to humans. ... A wrist watch A watch is a small portable timepiece or clock that displays the time and sometimes the day, date, month and year. ...

He built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The mechanism was made entirely of wood, which was not a curious choice of material for a joiner. Three of Harrison's early wooden clocks have survived; the first (1713) is at the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' Collection in Guildhall;. the second (1715), is in the Science Museum; the third (1717) is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire.

He was a man of many skills and used these to systematically improve the performance of pendulum clocks. For example, he invented the gridiron pendulum, consisting of alternating brass and iron rods assembled so that the different expansions and contractions cancel each other out. Another example of his inventive genius was the grasshopper escapement — a control device for the step-by-step release of a clock's driving power. Being almost frictionless, it required no oiling. The Grasshopper escapement is a remarkable low friction chronometer escapement - A control device for the step-by-step release of a clocks driving power. ... It has been suggested that Coefficient of friction be merged into this article or section. ...

The first three marine timekeepers

In 1730 Harrison made a description and drawings for a proposed marine clock to compete for the Longitude Prize and headed for London seeking financial assistance. He called on Edmond Halley, the Astronomer Royal, and presented his ideas. Halley sent him to talk to George Graham, the country's foremost horologist (clockmaker). He must have been impressed by Harrison, for Graham personally loaned him money and told him to build a model of his marine clock. It took Harrison seven years to build Harrison Number One or H1. He showed it to members of the Royal Society who spoke on his behalf to the Board of Longitude. After fourteen years of failures, the Board was so skeptical of any such design that they demanded a sea trial. Harrison sailed to Lisbon and back aboard two naval vessels, and on their return both the Captain and the Master (navigator) praised the design. The Master noted that his own calculations had placed the ship sixty miles east of its true landfall which had been correctly predicted by Harrison using H1. The longitude prize was a prize offered by the British government through an Act of Parliament in 1714 for the precise determination of a ships longitude. ... Portrait of Edmond Halley painted around 1687 by Thomas Murray (Royal Society, London) Portrait of Edmond Halley Bust of Edmond Halley in the Museum of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Edmond Halley (sometimes Edmund, November 8, 1656 – January 14, 1742) was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist. ... Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. ... George Graham (1674?-1751) was an English clockmaker and inventor and a member of the Royal Society. ... Horology is the study of the science and art of timekeeping devices. ... The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... The Board of Longitude was a British Government body formed in 1714 to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea. ... Location    - Country Portugal    - Region Lisbon  - Subregion Grande Lisboa  - District or A.R. Lisbon Mayor Carmona Rodrigues  - Party PSD Area 84. ...

This was not the transatlantic voyage demanded by the Board of Longitude, but the Board was impressed enough to grant Harrison 500 pounds for continued work. Harrison moved on to develop a more compact and rugged version, H2. In 1741, after three years of building and two of on-land testing, H2 was ready, but by then Britain was at war with Spain in the War of Austrian Succession and the mechanism was deemed too important to risk falling into Spanish hands. He was granted another £500 by the Board while waiting for the war to end, which he used to work on H3. But by 1755 he had become convinced that large machines were not the right route to a marine timekeeper. H3 had proved a very valuable experiment, teaching Harrison a huge amount about the design and making of balance springs and it left the world two enduring legacies — the bimetallic strip thermometer and the caged roller bearing. The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). ... thermocouple and Peltier_Seebeck effect. ... A rolling-element bearing is a bearing which carries a load by placing round elements between the two pieces. ...

The longitude watches

Based on a watch made to his designs by John Jefferys, he proposed to build two new timekeepers, a larger and a smaller watch. It was the larger H4 that was to be his masterpiece — an instrument of beauty, having the shape of a large pocketwatch but the size of a soup plate. A gold pocket watch An early reference to the pocket watch is in a letter in November 1462 from the Italian clockmaker Bartholomew Manfredi to the Marchese di Manta, where he offers him a pocket clock better than that belonging to the Duke of Modena. ...

H4 took six years to construct, and Harrison, by then 68 years old, sent it on its transatlantic trial in the care of his son, William, in 1761. When the ship reached Jamaica the watch was only two miles in error. When the ship returned Harrison waited for the £20,000 prize, but the Board refused to believe the accuracy was not just luck, and demanded another trial. The Harrisons were outraged and demanded their prize, a matter that eventually worked its way to Parliament, which offered £5,000 for the design. The Harrisons refused but were eventually obliged to make another trip, to the Caribbean city of Bridgetown, on the island of Barbados to settle the matter. The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. ... The City of Bridgetown, population 5,928 (1990) metropolitan area 110,000 (2000), formerly the Town of Saint Michael, is the Capital city of the island nation of Barbados. ...

At the time of the trial, another method for measuring longitude was being developed to the point where it was ready for testing, the Method of Lunar Distances. The moon moves fast enough, some twelve degrees a day, to easily measure the movement from day to day. By comparing the angle between the moon and the sun for today and when you left Britain (or more typically over Greenwich), the "proper position" of the moon could be calculated. By then comparing this with the angle of the moon over the horizon, the longitude could be calculated. In celestial navigation, lunar distance is in the angle of the Moons centre from the Sun or from the bright stars. ... Greenwich (pronounced grenn-itch , or by the locals) is a town, now part of the south eastern urban sprawl of London, on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Greenwich. ...

On Harrison's second H4 trial, the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne was asked to accompany the ship and test the Lunar Distances system. Once again H4 proved almost astonishingly accurate, measuring Bridgetown to within 10 miles. Maskelyne's measures were also fairly good, at 30 miles, but required considerable work and calculation in order to use. At a meeting of the Board in 1765 the results were presented, and once again they could not believe it was not just luck. Once again the matter reached Parliament, which offered £10,000 in advance and the other half once he turned over the design to other watchmakers to duplicate. In the meantime H4 would have to be turned over to the Astronomer Royal for long-term on-land testing. Nevil Maskelyne. ...

Unfortunately, Nevil Maskelyne had been appointed Astronomer Royal on his return from Barbados, and was therefore also placed on the Board of Longitude. He returned a report of the H4 that was negative, claiming that the "drift rate" of the clock, the amount of time it gained or lost per day, was actually an inaccuracy, and refused to allow it to be factored out when measuring longitude. This made the H4 fail the needs of the Board, even though in reality it had already proven itself twice.

Harrison started work on his H5 while the testing was continuing, with H4 being effectively held hostage by the Board. After three years of this he had had enough; Harrison felt "extremely ill used by the gentlemen who I might have expected better treatment from" and decided to enlist the aid of King George III. He asked for and was granted an audience with the King, who became extremely annoyed with the Board. King George tested H5 himself at the palace and when it had lost only four and a half seconds in ten days he was outraged and is said to have stormed "By God Harrison, I'll see you righted!", and told Harrison to petition Parliament for the full prize after threatening to appear in person to dress them down. So in 1773, Harrison finally received his reward. George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738–29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ...

James Cook used K1, a copy of H4, made by Larcum Kendall who had been apprenticed to John Jefferys on his voyages. Cook's log is full of praise for the watch and the charts of the southern Pacific Ocean he made with its use were remarkably accurate. The cost of these clocks was so high (a significant fraction of the cost of the ship) that the Lunar Distances method would also go on to be widely used for the next hundred years. K2 was on the HMAS Bounty, was recovered from Pitcarin Island, and travelled through several hands before reaching the National Maritime Museum. James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. ... Mayhew Folger was the Captain of the sealing ship Topaz that rediscovered the Pitcairn Islands in 1808. ... for other meaning see Mutiny on the Bounty (disambiguation) The mutineers turning Lt Bligh and some of the officers and crew adrift from HMAV Bounty, 29 April 1789 The Mutiny on the Bounty was a historical event in the late 18th century, most widely known through fiction, of an officer... National motto: ? Official language English (Pitcairnese also spoken) Capital Adamstown Governor Richard Fell Mayor Jay Warren (elected on December 15 2004) Area  - Total  - % water 47 km² Negligible Population  - Total (2003)  - Density 48 1/km² Dependent area of United Kingdom Currency New Zealand dollar Time zone UTC -8 National anthem None... The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom, and one of the most important in the world. ...

Memorials

Harrison burial place in Hampstead cemetery

Harrison died on his eighty-third birthday and is buried in the graveyard of St John's Church, Hampstead along with his second wife, Elizabeth and their son William. His tomb was comprehensively rebuilt in 1879 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers even though Harrison had never been a member of the Company. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1503 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: John Harrison ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1503 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: John Harrison ...

Blue plaque

Harrison's last home was in Red Lion Square in London, now a short walk from the Holborn Underground station. There is a plaque to Harrison on the wall of Summit House in the south side of the square. A memorial tablet to Harrison was unveiled in Westminster Abbey on the 24th of March 2006 finally recognising him as a worthy companion to his friend George Graham and Thomas Tompion,"The Father of English Watchmaking" who are both buried in the Abbey. The memorial shows a meridian line (line of constant longitude) in two metals to highlight Harrison's most widespread invention, the bimetallic strip thermometer. The strip is engraved with its own longitude of 0 degrees, 7minutes and 35seconds West. ImageMetadata File history File links HarrisonBP.jpg Summary This blue plaque is located on the south side of Red Lion Square, Holborn, London, England. ... ImageMetadata File history File links HarrisonBP.jpg Summary This blue plaque is located on the south side of Red Lion Square, Holborn, London, England. ... See: George Graham (soldier), was United States Secretary of War ad interim from October 16, 1816, to December 9, 1817 George Graham (clockmaker), 17th/18th-century English clockmaker and inventor George Graham (mountaineer) George Graham (footballer), Scottish football (soccer) player and manager George Graham (governor) 18th century governor of Newfoundland... Thomas Tompion Thomas Tompion(1639-1713) was an English master clocksmith known today as the father of English watchmaking. ... Meridian is: Meridian (astronomy): an imaginary circle perpendicular to the horizon. ...

Memorial

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (918x876, 147 KB) Summary My own photograph, shot on the 24th of March in Westminster Abbey, England. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (918x876, 147 KB) Summary My own photograph, shot on the 24th of March in Westminster Abbey, England. ...

Subsequent history

After World War I, Harrison's timepieces were found in a highly decrepit state in storage at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, by a retired naval officer, Rupert Gould, who spent many years documenting, repairing and restoring them. It was Gould, not Harrison, who gave them the designations H1 through H5. Gould is the author of the book The Marine Chronometer, covering the entire history of chronometers from the Middle Ages through to the 1920s. It includes a very detailed description of the work of Harrison, as well as discussion of the subsequent evolution of the chronometer. It still remains the authoritative work on the marine chronometer. Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard... Royal Observatory, Greenwich The original site of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), which was built as a workplace for the Astronomer Royal, was on a hill in Greenwich Park in Greenwich, London, overlooking the River Thames. ... Rupert Gould (November 16, 1890 - October 5, 1948), was a Lieutenant Commander in the British Royal Navy, and is perhaps most widely known for restoring the chronometers of John Harrison. ...

Today the restored H1, H2, H3 and H4 can be seen on display in the National Maritime Museum at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. H1, 2 and 3 are still running; H4 is kept stopped as, unlike the first three, it requires oil for lubrication, and degrades when run. H5 is owned by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of London and is on display at the Clockmakers' Museum in the Guildhall, London, as part of the Company's collection. The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom, and one of the most important in the world. ... The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. ... The Clockmakers Museum in London, England is a collection of clocks, watches and other horological items which belongs to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, which is one of the City of London Livery Companies. ... The Guildhall The Guildhall complex in c. ...

In the final years of his life, John Harrison wrote about his research into musical tuning and manufacturing methods for bells. His tuning system, (a meantone system derived from π), is described in his book "Concerning Such Mechanism ........ (CSM)." This system challenges the traditional view that "harmonics" occur at integer frequency ratios, and in consequence all music using this tuning produces low frequency beating. In 2002, Harrison's last manuscript, "A true and (short, but) (*crossed out) full Account of the Foundation of Musick, or, as principally therein, of the Existense of the Natural Notes of Melody:" was rediscovered in The US Library Of Congress. His theories on the mathematics of bell manufacturing, (using "Radical Numbers") are yet to be clearly understood.[1] Meantone temperament is a system of musical tuning. ... When a circles diameter is 1, its circumference is Ï€. The mathematical constant Ï€ is an irrational real number, approximately equal to 3. ...

Following a major Symposium on the Longitude Problem at Harvard University, Dava Sobel wrote a book in 1995 chronicling the history of John Harrison's invention, titled, "Longitude: The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time." An illustrated volume co-written with William J. H. Andrewes was printed in 1998: "The Illustrated Longitude" (ISBN 0-8027-1344-0). The account was dramatised in the 2000 film Longitude starring Michael Gambon as Harrison and Jeremy Irons as Gould. Dava Sobel is a writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. ... Michael Gambon in Charlotte Gray, (2001) Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE (born October 19, 1940), is an acclaimed Irish-born British actor who has worked in television, film and theatre. ... Jeremy Irons Jeremy John Irons (born September 19, 1948) is an Oscar-winning English actor. ...

See also

• Chronometer
• Horology
• Lucy tuning
• Time

A chronometer is a timekeeper precise enough to be used as a portable time standard, usually in order to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. ... Horology is the study of the science and art of timekeeping devices. ... LucyTuning is a form of meantone temperament, in which the fifth is of size 600+300/π (= approximately 695. ... Two distinct views exist on the meaning of time. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

John Harrison

• John Harrison and the Longitude Problem, at the National Maritime Museum site
• PBS Nova Online: Lost at Sea, the Search for Longitude
• John 'Longitude' Harrison and musical tuning

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ...

References

• Gould, Rupert T. (1923). The Marine Chronometer. Its History and Development. London: J. D. Potter. ISBN 0-907462-05-7.
• Sobel, Dava (1995). Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-025879-5.
• Sobel, Dava & Andrewes, Willam J.H. (1998). The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Walker Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-8027-1344-0.