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Volume 1, Number 1: 18th-Century London

	Science	John Harrison (March 24, 1693–March 24, 1776)
		John Harrison was a clockmaker and mechanical genius who became known as the man who solved the “longitude problem.” The Problem: Without a dependable method for finding longitude at sea, ocean vessels were subject to shipwreck or hopeless wandering. One tragic shipwreck in 1707, in which four British warships and two thousand men foundered only twenty miles from the southwest tip of England, propelled the British parliament to establish the Longitude Prize. Under its terms, £20,000 would be awarded for a pratical method for finding accurate longitude at sea.
	John Harrison

The Solution: John Harrison picked up the gauntlet, and devoted the next
forty years of his life to his solution—a clock that could keep time to within
three seconds in twenty-four hours, despite the vagaries of temperature,
damp, and violent motion at sea. Such accuracy was incredible in the early
1700s. How did a marine timekeeper help find longitude? By knowing the
difference between noon at home (tracked by the marine timekeeper, or
“chronometer,” set to home time) and local noon at sea, a sailor could know
how far east or west he had traveled from the home port. (For a much better
scientific explanation, check out one of the books under “Science” on the Stacks
page.) Harrison eventually made five marine timekeepers, which have become
known as H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5. The first three were large and unwieldy,
though beautiful; H4 and H5 resembled large pocket-watches.

Visit the Stacks page to find books and other resources on John Harrison.

Marine Timekeepers Timeline

	1730–1735	Construction of H1
	1736	Sea trial of H1, on voyage to Lisbon and back
	1737–1740	Construction of H2
	1740–1759	Construction of H3
	1755–1759	Construction of H4
	1761–1762	Sea trial of H4, on voyage to Jamaica
	1764	Second sea trial of H4, on voyage to Barbados
	1765	Harrison receives first half of Longitude Prize (£10,000); begins work on H5
	1772	Tests of H5 by King George III
	1773	Harrison awarded £8750 by act of Parliament; recognized for solving the Longitude Problem

To see photos of the Harrison marine timekeepers, click here.

Some Scientific Contemporaries

Math and Astronomy: The noted mathematicians and astronomers of
the day included John Hadley, who invented the quadrant for determining
latitude at sea; Edmund Halley of comet-prediction fame and Astronomer
Royal when Harrison first brought his design for H1 to Greenwich; Anders
Celsius, who along with studying the aurora borealis and the magnitude of
stars, proposed the Celsius temperature scale; Leonhard Euler, a brilliant
mathematician and prolific textbook writer who introduced the concept of
mathematical functions and the modern notation for triognometric functions,
and who also worked in the fields of physics, astronomy, and optics; Euler’s
friend Daniel Bernoulli, known for pioneering work in statistics and probability,
as well as for applying math to mechanics.

Exploration and Cartography: George Anson was the prominent
explorer in the first half of the century, with his circumnavigational voyage
of 1740–1744. (Anson later became First Lord of the Admiralty and served
on the Board of Longitude.) Captain James Cook gained fame in the latter part
of the 1700s when he made three exploratory voyages: 1768–1771, in which
he mapped the New Zealand coastline and the eastern coast of Australia;
1772–1775, in which he circumnavigated the globe in the high southern
latitudes (searching for the scientifically theorized but undiscovered Terra
Australis, a great southern continent) and used a copy of Harrison’s H4
chronometer to great effect; and 1776–1779, in which he searched for the
fabled Northwest Passage, mapped the northwest coast of North America,
and became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands (where he was
killed in a violent confrontation with the Hawaiians in 1779). Incidentally,
after the celebrated second voyage, Cook dined with James Boswell (see the
Literature page), was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and was awarded
the Copley Gold Medal for scientific achievement (Harrison was awarded
the Copley Gold Medal in 1749, for his early work on marine timekeepers.)

Biology: In the realm of biology, Carl Linnaeus introduced the hierarchical
system of taxonomy, with his publication of Systema naturae. (Linnaeus also
reversed the Celsius thermometer scale soon after Celsius’s death, to today’s
range of 0 degrees for the freezing point and 100 degrees for the boiling point
of water.)

Physical Science: Famous practitioners in this field included Benjamin
Franklin, who in the course of extensive electrical experiments invented the
lightning rod (yes, he also invented bifocals and the Franklin stove); and
Joseph Priestly, whose book The History and Present State of Electricity
was the standard textbook on that subject for the next hundred years, and
who invented soda water and was first to describe several gases, including
oxygen. (Priestly also was awarded the Copley Medal, in 1773.)

What I Love About John Harrison

Stick-to-itiveness: The man devoted more than forty years of his life to
the invention and construction of his marine timekeepers (almost twenty years
on the H3 alone). The precision parts—many of them miniscule—had to be
custom-made and perfectly fitted, obviously painstaking and grueling work.

Integrity and Perfectionism: After the successful but short sea-trial of
H1, when Harrison stood before the commissioners of the Board of Longitude,
he refrained from requesting the West Indies sea-trial that could win him the
Longitude Prize. Instead he pointed out some “defects” of the clock, and
requested just a little more money to begin work on a new and improved
timekeeper. The new timekeeper, the H2, was never tested at all. By the
time he had finished and presented it to the Board, he only wanted to go home
and try again. Yes, he thought he could make one even better.

Everything else: He was a trained carpenter (of course he made the cases
for all his marine timekeepers himself), self-taught “natural philosopher,” and
viol-playing, church-bell-ringing choirmaster. I also find it poetically perfect
that a clockmaker would have the same date of birth and death.

What I Love About King George III

So he was stubborn about that little disagreement with the American
Colonies, but he had a soft spot for science. When John Harrison in frustration
appealed to the King of England to get a little recognition for his work (i.e., the
Longitude Prize), King George is said to have exclaimed, “By God, Harrison,
I will see you righted!” In 1772, King George tested the H5 chronometer
himself, and found its performance superb.

Incidentally, it was King George III who in 1762 had awarded Samuel
Johnson a pension of £300 in appreciation for his work on The Dictionary.
Johnson met the king in 1767 and called him “the finest gentleman I have
ever seen.” (Read more about Samuel Johnson on the Literature page.)

	Can’t Get Enough of John Harrison?
	UK’s National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) NOVA Online UK’s Royal Society “[It is] one of the most exquisite movements ever made.” —William Hogarth, describing John Harrison’s H1 marine timekeeper (1753)

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