![]() In his earlier work on sea clocks, Harrison was continually assisted, both financially and in many other ways, by George Graham, the watchmaker, and instrument maker. By designing the accurate marine chronometer, Harrison had come up with a solution for one of the most puzzling technological problems of the 18th century. The uneducated carpenter was successful in solving a major problem of seafaring even before scientists and astronomers could come up with a solution. After working, re-working and improvising his clock models for almost three decades, he came up with an appropriate solution-a marine watch that could successfully measure the longitude during sea travel. Several of his clocks were tested with favorable results by the Royal Society though none of his initial models fitted the requirements necessary to win the prize. He worked hard for several years designing numerous models of clocks. Between 17, John and his brother James, also a skilled joiner, made at least three precision longcase clocks, again with the movements and longcase made of oak and lignum vitae. Unlike his early clocks, it incorporates some original features to improve timekeeping, for example, the grasshopper escapement. The clock still works, and like his previous clocks has a wooden movement of oak and lignum vitae. In the early 1720s, Harrison was commissioned to make a new turret clock at Brocklesby Park, North Lincolnshire. The second (1715) is also in the Science Museum in London and the third (1717) is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, the face bearing the inscription “John Harrison Barrow”. Three of Harrison’s early wooden clocks have survived: the first (1713) is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers’ collection previously in the Guildhall in London, and since 2015 on display in the Science Museum. Harrison built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The problem he solved was considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament offered financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £2.89 million in 2018) under the 1714 Longitude Act. His invention marked a landmark in sea travel and revolutionized the way sailors had been sailing on the seas previously. Was the inventor of the marine chronometer, a device that helps to establish the longitude of a ship at sea and makes long-distance sea travel safer. A house on the site of what may have been the family home bears a blue plaque. His father worked as a carpenter at the nearby Nostell Priory estate. John Harrison was born in Foulby in West Yorkshire, the first of five children in his family. John Harrison was an English carpenter and clockmaker of the eighteenth century who solved the “longitude” problem by inventing the first practical chronometer to enable navigation at sea via the use of longitudes. Place of Birth: Foulby, near Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England John Harrison- English carpenter and clockmaker.ĭate of Birth: 3 April (O.S.
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