Today’s Google Doodle celebrates clockmaker John Harrison, whose efforts to calculate longitude helped people figure out their place in the world — literally.
Harrison was born 325 years ago in Yorkshire, England and grew up to become a clockmaker. Before he died in 1776, he developed a series of increasingly accurate clocks that could be used to determine a ship’s position on the globe’s east-west axis, also known as its longitude.
Seamen had long used the position of the sun or North Star in the sky to figure out latitude — that is, distance from the equator in the north-south direction, according to The Conversation. But calculating longitude was much trickier, leading to deadly navigational errors: in 1707, for example, a five-ship pile-up off the Cornish coast killed 1,400 people. So in 1714, the British Board of Longitude announced a competition: £20,000 (or £1.5m in today’s currency, The Conversation reports) would be awarded to whomever developed the most accurate way to calculate longitude at sea. One way to do that, at least in theory, was to use time.
Since the Earth rotates 360 degrees in 24 hours, that means it rotates 15 degrees each hour. So if you know the time where you are and the time at zero-degrees longitude (which is arbitrarily set in Greenwich, England) you should be able to calculate your longitude, the Australian National Maritime Museum explains. So Harrison entered the competition with a hand-crafted clock that could accurately keep time even at sea. And over the next 40 years, he perfected the technology. But he didn’t win the £20,000, at least not at first.
In 1765, his son, William Harrison, took the fourth generation clock — called H4, or the sea watch — for a test voyage to Jamaica. The sea watch passed the test, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich. But still, the Board of Longitude wasn’t ready to call him a winner and ordered another test run — this time to Barbados, against two teams using methods that relied on astronomy rather than timepieces.
The watch was accurate, but what the Board of Longitude really wanted was a “practical solution” according to an Oxford University Press blog post by science historian Jim Bennett. That meant scaling up production of the watch, which would be challenging with such a carefully crafted device. So the Board agreed to award Harrison a partial prize of £10,000. He only received the full amount after King George III insisted, according to Smithsonian’s Time and Navigation series.
A compelling version of the narrative is that John Harrison solved the longitude problem, but was slighted by the scientific establishment, science historian Jim Bennett writes in a blog post for Oxford University Press. But that version of the story ignores the contributions of other clockmakers in the UK and in France who also were making progress towards developing reliable chronometers. “It is difficult to claim without important qualification that Harrison solved the longitude problem in a practical sense,” he says. But Harrison’s work showed that it was truly possible.
It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and without a doubt, British horologist John Harrison brought that age-old proverb to life.
Born on this day in 1693, in Foulby, Yorkshire, England, Harrison was a self-educated clockmaker and carpenter who came to the rescue of countless sailors by creating the first marine chronometer to calculate longitude at sea.
Seeking to remedy naval disasters, the British government created the Board of Longitude in 1714, which offered a reward of £20,000 to anyone who could devise a navigational instrument that could find the longitude within 30 miles of a sea voyage.
Harrison took on the challenge. He set to work on his chronometer in 1728 and completed it in 1735, following up this feat with three watches that were even smaller and more on the money than his first.
Harrison’s extraordinary invention brought him much acclaim. Thanks to him, seamen could determine not only gauge latitude but longitude, making their excursions far safer.
Our colorful Doodle shows the inventor hard at work, surrounded by the tools of his trade. Today, time is on his side.
Happy 325th birthday, John Harrison!
Google
If you don't already, it's time to get to know English inventor John Harrison.
To mark April 3, John Harrison's 325th birthday, Google is celebrating the man behind the first marine chronometer to calculate longitude at sea. To honor him, Google shows the inventor hard at work with his clock-making tools in Tuesday's Doodle.
Born in 1693, Harrison lived in a revolutionary time for sea navigation. In 1707, tragedy hit England when 1,550 sailors lost their lives in a naval disaster off the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall. The disaster was said to have been caused by an error in navigation, and the British government came up with the longitude prize, which would award £20,000 for a method of determining longitude at sea.
Harrison, a self-educated clockmaker and carpenter, spent five years creating a "sea clock" that could accurately tell the time at sea, crucial to navigation over long sea voyages. He completed it in 1735 and spent a further two decades further developing the design. He completed a fourth design in 1761.
Harrison died at 82 years old.
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British clockmaker John Harrison definitely had time on his side.
The self-educated horologist and carpenter was born on April 3, 1693, in Foulby, Yorkshire.
He is known as the man who came to the rescue of countless sailors by creating the first marine chronometer to calculate longitude at sea.
British government created the Board of Longitude in 1714, which sought to remedy naval disasters.
They offered a reward of £20,000 to anyone who could devise a navigational instrument that could find the longitude within 30 miles of a sea voyage.
Taking up the challenge, Harrison set to work on his chronometer in 1728 and completed it seven years later in 1735.
He followed up this feat with three watches that were even smaller and more accurate than his first.
Harrison’s extraordinary invention brought him much acclaim. Thanks to him, seamen could determine not only gauge latitude but longitude, making their excursions far safer.
Today's colourful Google Doodle shows the inventor hard at work, surrounded by the tools of his trade.
