NAVY'S FIRST TIMEKEEPER

Chronicle (Levin), 12 January 1948, Page 8

NAVY'S FIRST TIMEKEEPER

MAN REWARDED FOR PATIENCE AND INDUSTRY The story of a remarkable man, John Harrison, was told in a broadcast. in the B.B.C.'s Paciflc service, by William McDowell, marine architect, writer and painter of sea sub-, jects. Harrison was the man- who invented an accurate timekeeper for British shipping in the eighteenth century. Up to this time navigation was a sketchy business, for to chart position at sea accurately knowledge of exact latitude and longitude was required. The former could be determined by the sun and stars, but the latter was far more difflcult. You can find the time of the meridian you happen to be on by .simple observation and the diirerence between that and the time on the Greenwich meridiah' gives you longiture. To find longitude at sea needs an accurate timekeeper. Thsre was no such thing in the seventeenth century, the only clock ships carried being a sandglass. Errors in-time could be easily ma'de by a seaman forgetting to reverse the glass immediately the Sand had run through, and as an error of one minute on the equator means an error of 60 miles, the situation was fraught with danger. Ordinary c.locks were usel'ess at-sea, for none had been invented that would stand up to the mqtion of a shop or the changes of temperature. So many ships were lost through errors in longitude that the British Admiralty offered £20,000 for a timekeeper accurate within 30 miles in a six-week voyage. John Harrison, of Pontefract, in Yorkshire, was 20 when he rea'd about this prize and determined to win it — for £20,000 then was an enormous sum. After 14 years' work 'he produced two inventions, a pendulum unaffected by temperature changes, and an escapement which didn't need oiling, also a drawing for a timekeeper which he I was prepared to make if the Ad- [ miralty advance'd the money. They refused. John borrowed the money from a friend, and six years later produced his timekeeper, a beautiful piece of work which is still keeping accurate time after over 200 years. The Board of Admiralty was im-

pressed, ' ' b'ut said it wasn't good enough for theru — even though it kept excellent time and went without stopping or oiling for 30 years. They advanced small sums an'd John begah to build a second timekeeper'. It could not be tried out at sea, as Britain was at war with Spain and it might have falleri into enemy hands, so to fill in time the indefatigable craftsman started ,on a third, at tlie sanie time suggesting a fourth to check the third.. This fourth timekeeper is the most famous' ever made. It WaS tested at sea and prove'd astonishingly accurate, doing all that the Admiralty required, but they would not admit it and merely gave Harrison £2500 on account, asking for further trials. A protracted and sordid wrangle began, with the Admiralty offering Harrison half the prize nloney, less the £2500 already advanced. The case dragged on until John, at the end of his patience, Wrote to George III, who sent for the inventor and his son and said that justice would be done. John also petiticned Parliament, harsh questions were asked in the House and the Board came under such fire that they surrendered at last and granted the staunch Yorkshireman the second half of the prize he ' had justly won 36 years before, though even then they kept £1250 back.