It is the story of John Harrison's quest to solve the problem of developing a seagoing time piece in order to determine longitude on a rolling ship. He did it through four amazing clocks: H1, H2, H3, and H4.
I highly recommend reading the book Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel.
H1 at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
H4 at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.355/viewPage/2
A ship's clock became vital to safe navigation. This was to be a problem for William Bligh on the Bounty.
"The list of his officers' transgressions while in Tahiti, quite apart from incidents in the earlier part of the voyage, is impressive: . . . Bligh had discovered that the ship's timekeeper, critical to accurate navigation, had been allowed to run down . . . ."
Alexander, Caroline, The Bounty, Harper Perennial, London, 2003, p. 121.
1 comment:
Dava Sobel's "Logitude" is one of the greatest books I have ever read on any subject. Once you've read it, you are absolutely compelled to visit Greenwich any chance you get.
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