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A matter of time. The earth’s latitude was established long before the longitude, with the former fixed by nature’s physical law and relatively consistent compared to the latter, which was made complicated by a shifting time factor. Without benefit of the longitude, thousands of seafarers in the past had risked their lives on luck and the captain’s judgement to sail the high seas. After almost four centuries of questing for a viable solution, the maritime community finally endorsed the first reliable chronometer from an erstwhile unknown English clockmaker by the name of John Harrison.
Still, due recognition for Harrison was a long time coming. Until 1773, both inventor and inventions - the four iterations were designated H1, H2, H3, and H4 - were met with disdainful opposition from the scientific elite, largely astronomers, who posited the celestial clock, not the mechanical one, as a true gauge of longitude. Harrison’s ingenuity suffered decades of academic skepticism, award sabotage, back-biting, formidable competition, financial challenges and Harrison’s own sense of perfectionism, as recounted in Dava Sobel’s Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time. At times vivid and inspiring, Sobel’s telling breathed much-needed color into an otherwise dry historical event and Harrison’s even dryer personality.
Longitude barely qualified as a biography, as Harrison’s personal life was little known. He seemed to be an extraordinarily reserved person, who had taught himself clock-making without the benefit of apprenticeship or a formal education. In the eyes of most readers, the very mystery of the genius Harrison made him an intriguing historical figure. Most definitely in the eyes of this reader, Harrison’s remarkable achievements made me cheer for an underdog who succeeded against all odds to develop an accurate sea clock for measuring longitude, which also initiated a boom industry in marine timekeeping.
Longitude has enough facts loaded on for those needing details, but dramatized enough to pique my interest. It is the kind of book one might buy from the gift store after a visit to the maritime museum, or for someone into horology. Neither applied to me; the subject, book length (< 200 pages, Kindle) and my mood merely converged favorably. Someday, I hope to see Harrison’s original marine chronometers on display at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London. The images here will serve as reference for the time being.
Still, due recognition for Harrison was a long time coming. Until 1773, both inventor and inventions - the four iterations were designated H1, H2, H3, and H4 - were met with disdainful opposition from the scientific elite, largely astronomers, who posited the celestial clock, not the mechanical one, as a true gauge of longitude. Harrison’s ingenuity suffered decades of academic skepticism, award sabotage, back-biting, formidable competition, financial challenges and Harrison’s own sense of perfectionism, as recounted in Dava Sobel’s Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time. At times vivid and inspiring, Sobel’s telling breathed much-needed color into an otherwise dry historical event and Harrison’s even dryer personality.
Longitude barely qualified as a biography, as Harrison’s personal life was little known. He seemed to be an extraordinarily reserved person, who had taught himself clock-making without the benefit of apprenticeship or a formal education. In the eyes of most readers, the very mystery of the genius Harrison made him an intriguing historical figure. Most definitely in the eyes of this reader, Harrison’s remarkable achievements made me cheer for an underdog who succeeded against all odds to develop an accurate sea clock for measuring longitude, which also initiated a boom industry in marine timekeeping.
Longitude has enough facts loaded on for those needing details, but dramatized enough to pique my interest. It is the kind of book one might buy from the gift store after a visit to the maritime museum, or for someone into horology. Neither applied to me; the subject, book length (< 200 pages, Kindle) and my mood merely converged favorably. Someday, I hope to see Harrison’s original marine chronometers on display at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London. The images here will serve as reference for the time being.
