John Harrison’s Marine Chronometer
When Harrison won the Longitude Prize, fair and square, Parliament wouldn’t pay up.
1762-1764
King George III 1760-1820
When Harrison won the Longitude Prize, fair and square, Parliament wouldn’t pay up.
1762-1764
King George III 1760-1820
Yorkshireman John Harrison was a carpenter by trade, but he taught himself clockmaking to such a high standard that he came to the attention of the Astronomer Royal, Edmund Halley.
IN their day, John Harrison’s innovative clocks were perhaps the most precise in the world.
But his greatest achievement was a watch that could keep accurate time on long sea-journeys, such as Britain’s trade empire depended on.
It was a matter not only of keeping steady time on a rolling ship, but of tracking changing longitude, as ships were literally being lost every year. So in 1714 Parliament offered a prize of £20,000 for a satisfactory solution.
Unfortunately, the award was in the gift of Harrison’s principal competitor, Nevil Maskelyne, who dismissed Harrison’s successful trials, in 1762 and 1764, as luck.
Harrison appealed to King George III, who tested the watch himself, and instructed Parliament to award Harrison the prize. It never did, to Harrison or to anyone else.
Nonetheless, Harrison’s technology was used by James Cook to chart Australia, and soon sea-faring without it was unthinkable. His prize was to be one of the architects of the modern world.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why was calculating longitude so important to the Royal Navy?
Not knowing longitude cost ships and lives.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Parliament offered a prize. The winner must accurately calculate a ship’s longitude. The prize was £20,000.