JOHN HARRISON: INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER.
"No man knows who invented the mariner's compass, or who first hollowed
out a canoe from a log. The power to observe accurately the sun, moon,
and planets, so as to fix a vessel's actual position when far out of
sight of land, enabling long voyages to be safely made; the marvellous
improvements in ship-building, which shortened passages by sailing
vessels, and vastly reduced freights even before steam gave an
independent force to the carrier--each and all were done by small
advances, which together contributed to the general movement of
mankind.... Each owes all to the others. The forgotten inventors live
for ever in the usefulness of the work they have done and the progress
they have striven for."--H. M. Hyndman.
One of the most extraordinary things connected with Applied Science is
the method by which the Navigator is enabled to find the exact spot of
sea on which his ship rides. There may be nothing but water and sky
within his view; he may be in the midst of the ocean, or gradually
nearing the land; the curvature of the globe baffles the search of his
telescope; but if he have a correct chronometer, and can make an
astronomical observation, he may readily ascertain his longitude, and
know his approximate position--how far he is from home, as well as from
his intended destination. He is even enabled, at some special place,
to send down his grappling-irons into the sea, and pick up an
electrical cable for examination and repair.
This is the result of a knowledge of Practical Astronomy. "Place an
astronomer," says Mr. Newcomb, "on board a ship; blindfold him; carry
him by any route to any ocean on the globe, whether under the tropics
or in one of the frigid zones; land him on the wildest rock that can be
found; remove his bandage, and give him a chronometer regulated to
Greenwich or Washington time, a transit instrument with the proper
appliances, and the necessary books and tables, and in a single clear
night he can tell his position within a hundred yards by observations
of the stars. This, from a utilitarian point of view, is one of the
most important operations of Practical Astronomy."[2]
The Marine Chronometer was the outcome of the crying want of the
sixteenth century for an instrument that should assist the navigator to
find his longitude on the pathless ocean. Spain was then the principal
naval power; she was the most potent monarchy in Europe, and held half
America under her sway. Philip III. offered 100,000 crowns for any
discovery by means of which the longitude might be determined by a
better method than by the log, which was found very defective. Holland
next became a great naval power, and followed the example of Spain in
offering 30,000 florins for a similar discovery. But though some
efforts were made, nothing practical was done, principally through the
defective state of astronomical instruments. England succeeded Spain
and Holland as a naval power; and when Charles II. established the
Greenwich Observatory, it was made a special point that Flamsteed, the
Astronomer-Royal, should direct his best energies to the perfecting of
a method for finding the longitude by astronomical observations. But
though Flamsteed, together with Halley and Newton, made some progress,
they were prevented from obtaining ultimate success by the want of
efficient chronometers and the defective nature of astronomical
instruments.
Nothing was done until the reign of Queen Anne, when a petition was
presented to the Legislature on the 25th of May, 1714, by "several
captains of Her Majesty's ships, merchants in London, and commanders of
merchantmen, in behalf of themselves, and of all others concerned in
the navigation of Great Britain," setting forth the importance of the
accurate discovery of the longitude, and the inconvenience and danger
to which ships were subjected from the want of some suitable method of
discovering it. The petition was referred to a committee, which took
evidence on the subject. It appears that Sir Isaac Newton, with his
extraordinary sagacity, hit the mark in his report. "One is," he said,
"by a watch to keep time exactly; but, by reason of the motion of a
ship, and the variation of heat and cold, wet and dry, and the
difference of gravity in different latitudes, such a watch hath not yet
been made."
An Act was however passed in the Session of 1714, offering a very large
public reward to inventors: 10,000L. to any one who should discover a
method of determining the longitude to one degree of a great circle, or
60 geographical miles; 15,000L. if it determined the same to two-thirds
of that distance, or 40 geographical miles; and 20,000L. if it
determined the same to one-half of the same distance, or 30
geographical miles. Commissioners were appointed by the same Act, who
were instructed that "one moiety or half part of such reward shall be
due and paid when the said commissioners, or the major part of them, do
agree that any such method extends to the security of ships within 80
geographical miles of the shore, which are places of the greatest
danger; and the other moiety or half part when a ship, by the
appointment of the said commissioners, or the major part of them, shall
actually sail over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such port in
the West Indies as those commissioners, or the major part of them,
shall choose or nominate for the experiment, without losing the
longitude beyond the limits before mentioned."
The terms of this offer indicate how great must have been the risk and
inconvenience which it was desired to remedy. Indeed, it is almost
inconceivable that a reward so great could be held out for a method
which would merely afford security within eighty geographical miles!
This splendid reward for a method of discovering the longitude was
offered to the world--to inventors and scientific men of all
countries--without restriction of race, or nation, or language. As
might naturally be expected, the prospect of obtaining it stimulated
many ingenious men to make suggestions and contrive experiments; but
for many years the successful construction of a marine time-keeper
seemed almost hopeless. At length, to the surprise of every one, the
prize was won by a village carpenter--a person of no school, or
university, or college whatever.
Even so distinguished an artist and philosopher as Sir Christopher Wren
was engaged, as late in his life as the year 1720, in attempting to
solve this important problem. As has been observed, in the memoir of
him contained in the 'Biographia Britannica,'[3] "This noble invention,
like some others of the most useful ones to human life, seems to be
reserved for the peculiar glory of an ordinary mechanic, who, by
indefatigable industry, under the guidance of no ordinary sagacity,
hath seemingly at last surmounted all difficulties, and brought it to a
most unexpected degree of perfection." Where learning and science
failed, natural genius seems to have triumphed.
The truth is, that the great mechanic, like the great poet, is born,
not made; and John Harrison, the winner of the famous prize, was a born
mechanic. He did not, however, accomplish his object without the
exercise of the greatest skill, patience, and perseverance. His
efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes apparently hopeless.
Indeed, his life, so far as we can ascertain the facts, affords one of
the finest examples of difficulties encountered and triumphantly
overcome, and of undaunted perseverance eventually crowned by success,
which is to be found in the whole range of biography.
No complete narrative of Harrison's career was ever written. Only a
short notice of him appears in the 'Biographia Britannica,' published
in 1766, during his lifetime'--the facts of which were obtained from
himself. A few notices of him appear in the 'Annual Register,' also
published during his lifetime. The final notice appeared in the volume
published in 1777, the year after his death. No Life of him has since
appeared. Had he been a destructive hero, and fought battles by land
or sea, we should have had biographies of him without end. But he
pursued a more peaceful and industrious course. His discovery
conferred an incalculable advantage on navigation, and enabled
innumerable lives to be saved at sea; it also added to the domains of
science by its more exact measurement of time. But his memory has been
suffered to pass silently away, without any record being left for the
benefit and advantage of those who have succeeded him. The following
memoir includes nearly all that is known of the life and labours of
John Harrison.
He was born at Foulby, in the parish of Wragby, near Pontefract,
Yorkshire, in March, 1693. His father, Henry Harrison, was carpenter
and joiner to Sir Rowland Winn, owner of the Nostell Priory estate.
The present house was built by the baronet on the site of the ancient
priory. Henry Harrison was a sort of retainer of the family, and long
continued in their Service.
Little is known of the boy's education. It was certainly of a very
inferior description. Like George Stephenson, Harrison always had a
great difficulty in making himself understood, either by speech or
writing. Indeed, every board-school boy now receives a better
education than John Harrison did a hundred and eighty years ago. But
education does not altogether come by reading and writing. The boy was
possessed of vigorous natural abilities. He was especially attracted
by every machine that moved upon wheels. The boy was 'father to the
man.' When six years old, and lying sick of small-pox, a going watch
was placed upon his pillow, which afforded him infinite delight.
When seven years old he was taken by his father to Barrow, near
Barton-on-Humber, where Sir Rowland Winn had another residence and
estate. Henry Harrison was still acting as the baronet's carpenter and
joiner. In course of time young Harrison joined his father in the
workshop, and proved of great use to him. His opportunities for
acquiring knowledge were still very few, but he applied his powers of
observation and his workmanship upon the things which were nearest him.
He worked in wood, and to wood he first turned his attention.
He was still fond of machines going upon wheels. He had enjoyed the
sight of the big watch going upon brass wheels when he was a boy; but,
now that he was a workman in wood, he proposed to make an eight-day
clock, with wheels of this material. He made the clock in 1713, when
he was twenty years old,[4] so that he must have made diligent use of
his opportunities. He had of course difficulties to encounter, and
nothing can be accomplished without them; for it is difficulties that
train the habits of application and perseverance. But he succeeded in
making an effective clock, which counted the time with regularity.
This clock is still in existence. It is to be seen at the Museum of
Patents, South Kensington; and when we visited it a few months ago it
was going, and still marking the moments as they passed. It is
contained in a case about six feet high, with a glass front, showing a
pendulum and two weights. Over the clock is the following inscription:
"This clock was made at Barrow, Lincolnshire, in the year 1715, by John
Harrison, celebrated as the inventor of a nautical timepiece, or
chronometer, which gained the reward of 20,000L., offered by the Board
of Longitude, A.D. 1767.
"This clock strikes the hour, indicates the day of the month, and with
one exception (the escapement) the wheels are entirely made of wood."
This, however, was only a beginning. Harrison proceeded to make better
clocks; and then he found it necessary to introduce metal, which was
more lasting. He made pivots of brass, which moved more conveniently
in sockets of wood with the use of oil. He also caused the teeth of
his wheels to run against cylindrical rollers of wood, fixed by brass
pins, at a proper distance from the axis of the pinions; and thus to a
considerable extent removed the inconveniences of friction.
In the meantime Harrison eagerly improved every incident from which he
might derive further information. There was a clergyman who came every
Sunday to the village to officiate in the neighbourhood; and having
heard of the sedulous application of the young carpenter, he lent him a
manuscript copy of Professor Saunderson's discourses. That blind
professor had prepared several lectures on natural philosophy for the
use of his students, though they were not intended for publication.
Young Harrison now proceeded to copy them out, together with the
diagrams. Sometimes, indeed, he spent the greater part of the night in
writing or drawing.
As part of his business, he undertook to survey land, and to repair
clocks and watches, besides carrying on his trade of a carpenter. He
soon obtained a considerable knowledge of what had been done in clocks
and watches, and was able to do not only what the best professional
workers had done, but to strike out entirely new lights in the clock
and watch-making business. He found out a method of diminishing
friction by adding a joint to the pallets of the pendulum, whereby they
were made to work in the nature of rollers of a large radius, without
any sliding, as usual, upon the teeth of the wheel. He constructed a
clock on the recoiling principle, which went perfectly, and never lost
a minute within fourteen years. Sir Edmund Denison Beckett says that
he invented this method in order to save himself the trouble of going
so frequently to oil the escapement of a turret clock, of which he had
charge; though there were other influences at work besides this.
But his most important invention, at this early period of his life, was
his compensation pendulum. Every one knows that metals expand with
heat and contract by cold. The pendulum of the clock therefore
expanded in summer and contracted in winter, thereby interfering with
the regular going of the clock. Huygens had by his cylindrical checks
removed the great irregularity arising from the unequal lengths of the
oscillations; but the pendulum was affected by the tossing of a ship at
sea, and was also subject to a variation in weight, depending on the
parallel of latitude. Graham, the well-known clock-maker, invented the
mercurial compensation pendulum, consisting of a glass or iron jar
filled with quicksilver and fixed to the end of the pendulum rod. When
the rod was lengthened by heat, the quicksilver and the jar which
contained it were simultaneously expanded and elevated, and the centre
of oscillation was thus continued at the same distance from the point
of suspension.
But the difficulty, to a certain extent, remained unconquered until
Harrison took the matter in hand. He observed that all rods of metal
do not alter their lengths equally by heat, or, on the contrary, become
shorter by cold, but some more sensibly than others. After innumerable
experiments Harrison at length composed a frame somewhat resembling a
gridiron, in which the alternate bars were of steel and of brass, and
so arranged that those which expanded the most were counteracted by
those which expanded the least. By this means the pendulum contained
the power of equalising its own action, and the centre of oscillation
continued at the same absolute distance from the point of suspension
through all the variations of heat and cold during the year.[5]
Thus by the year 1726, when he was only thirty-three years old,
Harrison had furnished himself with two compensation clocks, in which
all the irregularities to which these machines were subject, were
either removed or so happily balanced, one metal against the other,
that the two clocks kept time together in different parts of his house,
without the variation of more than a single second in the month. One
of them, indeed, which he kept by him for his own use, and constantly
compared with a fixed star, did not vary so much as one whole minute
during the ten years that he continued in the country after finishing
the machine.[6]
Living, as he did, not far from the sea, Harrison next endeavoured to
arrange his timekeeper for purposes of navigation.
He tried his clock in a vessel belonging to Barton-on-Humber; but his
compensating pendulum could there be of comparatively little use; for
it was liable to be tossed hither or thither by the sudden motions of
the ship. He found it necessary, therefore, to mount a chronometer, or
portable timekeeper, which might be taken from place to place, and
subjected to the violent and irregular motion of a ship at sea, without
affecting its rate of going. It was evident to him that the first
mover must be changed from a weight and pendulum to a spring wound up
and a compensating balance.
He now applied his genius in this direction. After pondering over the
subject, he proceeded to London in 1728, and exhibited his drawings to
Dr. Halley, then Astronomer-Royal. The Doctor referred him to Mr.
George Graham, the distinguished horologer, inventor of the dead-beat
escapement and the mercurial pendulum. After examining the drawings and
holding some converse with Harrison, Graham perceived him to be a man
of uncommon merit, and gave him every encouragement. He recommended
him, however, to make his machine before again applying to the Board of
Longitude.
Harrison returned home to Barrow to complete his task, and many years
elapsed before he again appeared in London to present his first
chronometer.
The remarkable success which Harrison had achieved in his compensating
pendulum could not but urge him on to further experiments. He was no
doubt to a certain extent influenced by the reward of 20,000L. which
the English Government had offered for an instrument that should enable
the longitude to be more accurately determined by navigators at sea
than was then possible; and it was with the object of obtaining
pecuniary assistance to assist him in completing his chronometer that
Harrison had, in 1728, made his first visit to London to exhibit his
drawings.
The Act of Parliament offering this superb reward was passed in 1714,
fourteen years before, but no attempt had been made to claim it. It
was right that England, then rapidly advancing to the first position as
a commercial nation, should make every effort to render navigation less
hazardous. Before correct chronometers were invented, or good lunar
tables were prepared,[7] the ship, when fairly at sea, out of sight of
land, and battling with the winds and tides, was in a measure lost. No
method existed for accurately ascertaining the longitude. The ship
might be out of its course for one or two hundred miles, for anything
that the navigator knew; and only the wreck of his ship on some unknown
coast told of the mistake that he had made in his reckoning.
It may here be mentioned that it was comparatively easy to determine
the latitude of a ship at sea every day when the sun was visible. The
latitude--that is, the distance of any spot from the equator and the
pole--might be found by a simple observation with the sextant. The
altitude of the sun at noon is found, and by a short calculation the
position of the ship can be ascertained.
The sextant, which is the instrument universally used at sea, was
gradually evolved from similar instruments used from the earliest
times. The object of this instrument has always been to find the
angular distance between two bodies--that is to say, the angle
contained by two straight lines, drawn from those bodies to meet in the
observer's eye. The simplest instrument of this kind may be well
represented by a pair of compasses. If the hinge is held to the eye,
one leg pointed to the distant horizon, and the other leg pointed to
the sun, the position of the two legs will show the angular distance of
the sun from the horizon at the moment of observation.
Until the end of the seventeenth century, the instrument used was of
this simple kind. It was generally a large quadrant, with one or two
bars moving on a hinge,--to all intents and purposes a huge pair of
compasses. The direction of the sight was fixed by the use of a slit
and a pointer, much as in the ordinary rifle. This instrument was
vastly improved by the use of a telescope, which not only allowed
fainter objects to be seen, but especially enabled the sight to be
accurately directed to the object observed.
The instruments of the pre-telescopic age reached their glory in the
hands of Tycho Brahe. He used magnificent instruments of the simple
"pair of compasses" kind--circles, quadrants, and sextants. These were
for the most part ponderous fixed instruments of little or no use for
the purposes of navigation. But Tycho Brahe's sextant proved the
forerunner of the modern instrument. The general structure is the
same; but the vast improvement of the modern sextant is due, firstly,
to the use of the reflecting mirror, and, secondly, to the use of the
telescope for accurate sighting. These improvements were due to many
scientific men--to William Gascoigne, who first used the telescope,
about 1640; to Robert Hooke, who, in 1660, proposed to apply it to the
quadrant; to Sir Isaac Newton, who designed a reflecting quadrant;[8]
and to John Hadley, who introduced it. The modern sextant is merely a
modification of Newton's or Badley's quadrant, and its present
construction seems to be perfect.
It therefore became possible accurately to determine the position of a
ship at sea as regarded its latitude. But it was quite different as
regarded the longitude that is, the distance of any place from a given
meridian, eastward or westward. In the case of longitude there is no
fixed spot to which reference can be made. The rotation of the earth
makes the existence of such a spot impossible. The question of
longitude is purely a question of TIME. The circuit of the globe, east
and west, is simply represented by twenty-four hours. Each place has
its own time. It is very easy to determine the local time at any spot
by observations made at that spot. But, as time is always changing,
the knowledge of the local time gives no idea of the actual position;
and still less of a moving object--say, of a ship at sea. But if, in
any locality, we know the local time, and also the local time of some
other locality at that moment--say, of the Observatory at Greenwich we
can, by comparing the two local times, determine the difference of
local times, or, what is the same thing, the difference of longitude
between the two places. It was necessary therefore for the navigator to
be in possession of a first-rate watch or chronometer, to enable him to
determine accurately the position of his ship at sea, as respected the
longitude.
Before the middle of the eighteenth century good watches were
comparatively unknown. The navigator mainly relied, for his
approximate longitude, upon his Dead Reckoning, without any observation
of the heavenly bodies. He depended upon the accuracy of the course
which he had steered by the compass, and the mensuration of the ship's
velocity by an instrument called the Log, as well as by combining and
rectifying all the allowances for drift, lee-way, and so on, according
to the trim of the ship; but all of these were liable to much
uncertainty, especially when the sea was in a boisterous condition.
There was another and independent course which might have been
adopted--that is, by observation of the moon, which is constantly
moving amongst the stars from west to east. But until the middle of
the eighteenth century good lunar tables were as much unknown as good
watches.
Hence a method of ascertaining the longitude, with the same degree of
accuracy which is attainable in respect of latitude, had for ages been
the grand desideratum for men "who go down to the sea in ships." Mr.
Macpherson, in his important work entitled 'The Annals of Commerce,'
observes, "Since the year 1714, when Parliament offered a reward of
20,000L. for the best method of ascertaining the longitude at sea, many
schemes have been devised, but all to little or no purpose, as going
generally upon wrong principles, till that heaven-taught artist Mr.
John Harrison arose;" and by him, as Mr. Macpherson goes on to say, the
difficulty was conquered, having devoted to it "the assiduous studies
of a long life."
The preamble of the Act of Parliament in question runs as follows:
"Whereas it is well known by all that are acquainted with the art of
navigation that nothing is so much wanted and desired at sea as the
discovery of the longitude, for the safety and quickness of voyages,
the preservation of ships and the lives of men," and so on. The Act
proceeds to constitute certain persons commissioners for the discovery
of the longitude, with power to receive and experiment upon proposals
for that purpose, and to grant sums of money not exceeding 2000L. to
aid in such experiments. It will be remembered from what has been
above stated, that a reward of 10,000L. was to be given to the person
who should contrive a method of determining the longitude within one
degree of a great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. within 40
geographical miles; and 20,000L. within 30 geographical miles.
It will, in these days, be scarcely believed that little more than a
hundred and fifty years ago a prize of not less than ten thousand
pounds should have been offered for a method of determining the
longitude within sixty miles, and that double the amount should have
been offered for a method of determining it within thirty miles! The
amount of these rewards is sufficient proof of the fearful necessity
for improvement which then existed in the methods of navigation. And
yet, from the date of the passing of the Act in 1714 until the year
1736, when Harrison finished his first timepiece, nothing had been done
towards ascertaining the longitude more accurately, even within the
wide limits specified by the Act of Parliament. Although several
schemes had been projected, none of them had proved successful, and the
offered rewards therefore still remained unclaimed.
To return to Harrison. After reaching his home at Barrow, after his
visit to London in 1728, he began his experiments for the construction
of a marine chronometer. The task was one of no small difficulty. It
was necessary to provide against irregularities arising from the motion
of a ship at sea, and to obviate the effect of alternations of
temperature in the machine itself, as well as the oil with which it was
lubricated. A thousand obstacles presented themselves, but they were
not enough to deter Harrison from grappling with the work he had set
himself to perform.
Every one knows the beautiful machinery of a timepiece, and the perfect
tools required to produce such a machine. Some of these tools Harrison
procured in London, but the greater number he provided for himself; and
many entirely new adaptations were required for his chronometer. As
wood could no longer be exclusively employed, as in his first clock, he
had to teach himself to work accurately and minutely in brass and other
metals. Having been unable to obtain any assistance from the Board of
Longitude, he was under the necessity, while carrying forward his
experiments, of maintaining himself by still working at his trade of a
carpenter and joiner. This will account for the very long period that
elapsed before he could bring his chronometer to such a state as that
it might be tried with any approach to certainty in its operations.
Harrison, besides his intentness and earnestness, was a cheerful and
hopeful man. He had a fine taste for music, and organised and led the
choir of the village church, which attained a high degree of
perfection. He invented a curious monochord, which was not less
accurate than his clocks in the mensuration of time. His ear was
distressed by the ringing of bells out of tune, and he set himself to
remedy them. At the parish church of Hull, for instance, the bells
were harsh and disagreeable, and by the authority of the vicar and
churchwardens he was allowed to put them into a state of exact tune, so
that they proved entirely melodious.
But the great work of his life was his marine chronometer. He found it
necessary, in the first place, to alter the first mover of his clock to
a spring wound up, so that the regularity of the motion might be
derived from the vibrations of balances, instead of those of a pendulum
as in a standing clock. Mr. Folkes, President of the Royal Society,
when presenting the gold medal to Harrison in 1749, thus describes the
arrangement of his new machine. The details were obtained from
Harrison himself, who was present. He had made use of two balances
situated in the same plane, but vibrating in contrary directions, so
that the one of these being either way assisted by the tossing of the
ship, the other might constantly be just so much impeded by it at the
same time. As the equality of the times of the vibrations of the
balance of a pocket-watch is in a great measure owing to the spiral
spring that lies under it, so the same was here performed by the like
elasticity of four cylindrical springs or worms, applied near the upper
and lower extremities of the two balances above described.
Then came in the question of compensation. Harrison's experience with
the compensation pendulum of his clock now proved of service to him.
He had proceeded to introduce a similar expedient in his proposed
chronometer. As is well known to those who are acquainted with the
nature of springs moved by balances, the stronger those springs are,
the quicker the vibrations of the balances are performed, and vice
versa; hence it follows that those springs, when braced by cold, or
when relaxed by heat, must of necessity cause the timekeeper to go
either faster or slower, unless some method could be found to remedy
the inconvenience.
The method adopted by Harrison was his compensation balance, doubtless
the backbone of his invention. His "thermometer kirb," he himself
says, "is composed of two thin plates of brass and steel, riveted
together in several places, which, by the greater expansion of brass
than steel by heat and contraction by cold, becomes convex on the brass
side in hot weather and convex on the steel side in cold weather;
whence, one end being fixed, the other end obtains a motion
corresponding with the changes of heat and cold, and the two pins at
the end, between which the balance spring passes, and which it
alternately touches as the spring bends and unbends itself, will
shorten or lengthen the spring, as the change of heat or cold would
otherwise require to be done by hand in the manner used for regulating
a common watch." Although the method has since been improved upon by
Leroy, Arnold, and Earnshaw, it was the beginning of all that has since
been done in the perfection of marine chronometers. Indeed, it is
amazing to think of the number of clever, skilful, and industrious men
who have been engaged for many hundred years in the production of that
exquisite fabric--so useful to everybody, whether scientific or
otherwise, on land or sea the modern watch.
It is unnecessary here to mention in detail the particulars of
Harrison's invention. These were published by himself in his
'Principles of Mr. Harrison's Timekeeper.' It may, however, be
mentioned that he invented a method by which the chronometer might be
kept going without losing any portion of time. This was during the
process of winding up, which was done once in a day. While the
mainspring was being wound up, a secondary one preserved the motion of
the wheels and kept the machine going.
After seven years' labour, during which Harrison encountered and
overcame numerous difficulties, he at last completed his first marine
chronometer. He placed it in a sort of moveable frame, somewhat
resembling what the sailors call a 'compass jumble,' but much more
artificially and curiously made and arranged. In this state the
chronometer was tried from time to time in a large barge on the river
Humber, in rough as well as in smooth weather, and it was found to go
perfectly, without losing a moment of time.
Such was the condition of Harrison's chronometer when he arrived with
it in London in 1735, in order to apply to the commissioners appointed
for providing a public reward for the discovery of the longitude at
sea. He first showed it to several members of the Royal Society, who
cordially approved of it. Five of the most prominent members--Dr.
Bailey, Dr. Smith, Dr. Bradley, Mr. John Machin, and Mr. George
Graham--furnished Harrison with a certificate, stating that the
principles of his machine for measuring time promised a very great and
sufficient degree of exactness. In consequence of this certificate,
the machine, at the request of the inventor, and at the recommendation
of the Lords of the Admiralty, was placed on board a man-of-war.
Sir Charles Wager, then first Lord of the Admiralty, wrote to the
captain of the Centurion, stating that the instrument had been approved
by mathematicians as the best that had been made for measuring time;
and requesting his kind treatment of Mr. Harrison, who was to accompany
it to Lisbon. Captain Proctor answered the First Lord from Spithead,
dated May 17th, 1736, promising his attention to Harrison's comfort,
but intimating his fear that he had attempted impossibilities. It is
always so with a new thing. The first steam-engine, the first
gaslight, the first locomotive, the first steamboat to America, the
first electric telegraph, were all impossibilities!
This first chronometer behaved very well on the outward voyage in the
Centurion. It was not affected by the roughest weather, or by the
working of the ship through the rolling waves of the Bay of Biscay. It
was brought back, with Harrison, in the Orford man-of-war, when its
great utility was proved in a remarkable manner, although, from the
voyage being nearly on a meridian, the risk of losing the longitude was
comparatively small. Yet the following was the certificate of the
captain of the ship, dated the 24th June, 1737: "When we made the
land, the said land, according to my reckoning (and others), ought to
have been the Start; but, before we knew what land it was, John
Harrison declared to me and the rest of the ship's company that,
according to his observations with his machine, it ought to be the
Lizard--the which, indeed, it was found to be, his observation showing
the ship to be more west than my reckoning, above one degree and
twenty-six miles,"--that is, nearly ninety miles out of its course!
Six days later--that is, on the 30th June--the Board of Longitude met,
when Harrison was present, and produced the chronometer with which he
had made the voyage to Lisbon and back. The minute states: "Mr. John
Harrison produced a new invented machine, in the nature of clockwork,
whereby he proposes to keep time at sea with more exactness than by any
other instrument or method hitherto contrived, in order to the
discovery of the longitude at sea; and proposes to make another machine
of smaller dimensions within the space of two years, whereby he will
endeavour to correct some defects which he hath found in that already
prepared, so as to render the same more perfect; which machine, when
completed, he is desirous of having tried in one of His Majesty's ships
that shall be bound to the West Indies; but at the same time
represented that he should not be able, by reason of his necessitous
circumstances, to go on and finish his said machine without assistance,
and requested that he may be furnished with the sum of 500L., to put
him in a capacity to perform the same, and to make a perfect experiment
thereof."
The result of the meeting was that 500L. was ordered to be paid to
Harrison, one moiety as soon as convenient, and the other when he has
produced a certificate from the captain of one of His Majesty's ships
that he has put the machine on board into the captain's possession.
Mr. George Graham, who was consulted, urged that the Commissioners
should grant Harrison at least 1000L., but they only awarded him half
the sum, and at first only a moiety of the amount voted. At the
recommendation of Lord Monson, who was present, Harrison accepted the
250L. as a help towards the heavy expenses which he had already
incurred, and was again about to incur, in perfecting the invention.
He was instructed to make his new chronometer of less dimensions, as
the one exhibited was cumbersome and heavy, and occupied too much space
on board.
He accordingly proceeded to make his second chronometer. It occupied a
space of only about half the size of the first. He introduced several
improvements. He lessened the number of the wheels, and thereby
diminished friction. But the general arrangement remained the same.
This second machine was finished in 1739. It was more simple in its
arrangement, and less cumbrous in its dimensions. It answered even
better than the first, and though it was not tried at sea its motions
were sufficiently exact for finding the longitude within the nearest
limits proposed by Act of Parliament.
Not satisfied with his two machines, Harrison proceeded to make a
third. This was of an improved construction, and occupied still less
space, the whole of the machine and its apparatus standing upon an area
of only four square feet. It was in such forwardness in January, 1741,
that it was exhibited before the Royal Society, and twelve of the most
prominent members signed a certificate of "its great and excellent use,
as well for determining the longitude at sea as for correcting the
charts of the coasts." The testimonial concluded: "We do recommend
Mr. Harrison to the favour of the Commissioners appointed by Act of
Parliament as a person highly deserving of such further encouragement
and assistance as they shall judge proper and sufficient to finish his
third machine." The Commissioners granted him a further sum of 500L.
Harrison was already reduced to necessitous circumstances by his
continuous application to the improvement of the timekeepers. He had
also got into debt, and required further assistance to enable him to
proceed with their construction; but the Commissioners would only help
him by driblets.
Although Harrison had promised that the third machine would be ready
for trial on August 1, 1743, it was not finished for some years later.
In June, 1746, we find him again appearing before the Board, asking for
further assistance. While proceeding with his work he found it
necessary to add a new spring, "having spent much time and thought in
tempering them." Another 500L. was voted to enable him to pay his
debts, to maintain himself and family, and to complete his chronometer.
Three years later he exhibited his third machine to the Royal Society,
and on the 30th of November, 1749, he was awarded the Gold Medal for
the year. In presenting it, Mr. Folkes, the President, said to Mr.
Harrison, "I do here, by the authority and in the name of the Royal
Society of London for the improving of natural knowledge, present you
with this small but faithful token of their regard and esteem. I do,
in their name congratulate you upon the successes you have already had,
and I most sincerely wish that all your future trials may in every way
prove answerable to these beginnings, and that the full accomplishment
of your great undertaking may at last be crowned with all the
reputation and advantage to yourself that your warmest wishes may
suggest, and to which so many years so laudably and so diligently spent
in the improvement of those talents which God Almighty has bestowed
upon you, will so justly entitle your constant and unwearied
perseverance."
Mr. Folkes, in his speech, spoke of Mr. Harrison as "one of the most
modest persons he had ever known. In speaking," he continued, "of his
own performances, he has assured me that, from the immense number of
diligent and accurate experiments he has made, and from the severe
tests to which he has in many ways put his instrument, he expects he
shall be able with sufficient certainty, through all the greatest
variety of seasons and the most irregular motions of the sea, to keep
time constantly, without the variation of so much as three seconds in a
week,--a degree of exactness that is astonishing and even stupendous,
considering the immense number of difficulties, and those of very
different sorts, which the author of these inventions must have had to
encounter and struggle withal."
Although it is common enough now to make first-rate
chronometers--sufficient to determine the longitude with almost perfect
accuracy in every clime of the world--it was very different at that
time, when Harrison was occupied with his laborious experiments.
Although he considered his third machine to be the ne plus ultra of
scientific mechanism, he nevertheless proceeded to construct a fourth
timepiece, in the form of a pocket watch about five inches in diameter.
He found the principles which he had adopted in his larger machines
applied equally well in the smaller, and the performances of the last
surpassed his utmost expectations. But in the meantime, as his third
timekeeper was, in his opinion, sufficient to supply the requirements
of the Board of Longitude as respected the highest reward offered, he
applied to the Commissioners for leave to try that instrument on board
a royal ship to some port in the West Indies, as directed by the
statute of Queen Anne.
Though Harrison's third timekeeper was finished about the year 1758, it
was not until March 12, 1761, that he received orders for his son
William to proceed to Portsmouth, and go on board the Dorsetshire
man-of-war, to proceed to Jamaica. But another tedious delay occurred.
The ship was ordered elsewhere, and William Harrison, after remaining
five months at Portsmouth, returned to London. By this time, John
Harrison had finished his fourth timepiece--the small one, in the form
of a watch. At length William Harrison set sail with this timekeeper
from Portsmouth for Jamaica, on November 18th, 1761, in the Deptford
man-of-war. The Deptford had forty-three ships in convoy, and arrived
at Jamaica on the 19th of January, 1762, three days before the Beaver,
another of His Majesty's ships-of-war, which had sailed from Portsmouth
ten days before the Deptford, but had lost her reckoning and been
deceived in her longitude, having trusted entirely to the log.
Harrison's timepiece had corrected the log of the Deptford to the
extent of three degrees of longitude, whilst several of the ships in
the fleet lost as much as five degrees! This shows the haphazard way
in which navigation was conducted previous to the invention of the
marine chronometer.
When the Deptford arrived at Port Royal, Jamaica, the timekeeper was
found to be only five and one tenth seconds in error; and during the
voyage of four months, on its return to Portsmouth on March 26th, 1762,
it was found (after allowing for the rate of gain or loss) to have
erred only one minute fifty-four and a half seconds. In the latitude
of Portsmouth this only amounted to eighteen geographical miles,
whereas the Act had awarded that the prize should be given where the
longitude was determined within the distance of thirty geographical
miles. One would have thought that Harrison was now clearly entitled
to his reward of 20,000L.
Not at all! The delays interposed by Government are long and tedious,
and sometimes insufferable. Harrison had accomplished more than was
needful to obtain the highest reward which the Board of Longitude had
publicly offered. But they would not certify that he had won the
prize. On the contrary, they started numerous objections, and
continued for years to subject him to vexatious delays and
disappointments. They pleaded that the previous determination of the
longitude of Jamaica by astronomical observation was unsatisfactory;
that there was no proof of the chronometer having maintained a uniform
rate during the voyage; and on the 17th of August, 1762, they passed a
resolution, stating that they "were of opinion that the experiments
made of the watch had not been sufficient to determine the longitude at
sea."
It was accordingly necessary for Harrison to petition Parliament on the
subject. Three reigns had come and gone since the Act of Parliament
offering the reward had been passed. Anne had died; George I. and
George II. had reigned and died; and now, in the reign of George
III.--thirty-five years after Harrison had begun his labours, and after
he had constructed four several marine chronometers, each of which was
entitled to win the full prize,--an Act of Parliament was passed
enabling the inventor to obtain the sum of 5000L. as part of the
reward. But the Commissioners still hesitated. They differed about
the tempering of the springs. They must have another trial of the
timekeeper, or anything with which to put off a settlement of the
claim. Harrison was ready for any further number of trials; and in the
meantime the Commissioners merely paid him a further sum on account.
Two more dreary years passed. Nothing was done in 1763 except a
quantity of interminable talk at the Board of Commissioners. At
length, on the 28th of March, 1764, Harrison's son again departed with
the timekeeper on board the ship Tartar for Barbadoes. He returned in
about four months, during which time the instrument enabled the
longitude to be ascertained within ten miles, or one-third of the
required geographical distance. Harrison memorialised the
Commissioners again and again, in order that he might obtain the reward
publicly offered by the Government.
At length the Commissioners could no longer conceal the truth. In
September,1764, they virtually recognised Harrison's claim by paying
him 1000L. on account; and, on the 9th of February,1765, they passed a
resolution setting forth that they were "unanimously of opinion that
the said timekeeper has kept its time with sufficient correctness,
without losing its longitude in the voyage from Portsmouth to Barbadoes
beyond the nearest limit required by the Act 12th of Queen Anne, but
even considerably within the same." Yet they would not give Harrison
the necessary certificate, though they were of opinion that he was
entitled to be paid the full reward!
It is pleasant to contrast the generous conduct of the King of Sardinia
with the procrastinating and illiberal spirit which Harrison met with
in his own country. During the same year in which the above resolution
was passed, the Sardinian minister ordered four of Harrison's
timekeepers at the price of 1000L. each, at the special instance of the
King of Sardinia "as an acknowledgement of Mr. Harrison's ingenuity,
and as some recompense for the time spent by him for the general good
of mankind." This grateful attention was all the more praiseworthy, as
Sardinia could not in any way be regarded as a great maritime power.
Harrison was now becoming old and feeble. He had attained the age of
seventy-four. He had spent forty long years in working out his
invention. He was losing his eyesight, and could not afford to wait
much longer. Still he had to wait.
"Full little knowest thou, who hast not tried,
What hell it is in suing long to bide;
To lose good days, that might be better spent;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To spend to-day, to be put back to-morrow,
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow."
But Harrison had not lost his spirit. On May 30th, 1765, he addressed
another remonstrance to the Board, containing much stronger language
than he had yet used. "I cannot help thinking," he said, "that I am
extremely ill-used by gentlemen from whom I might have expected a
different treatment; for, if the Act of the 12th of Queen Anne be
deficient, why have I so long been encouraged under it, in order to
bring my invention to perfection? And, after the completion, why was
my son sent twice to the West Indies? Had it been said to my son, when
he received the last instruction, 'There will, in case you succeed, be
a new Act on your return, in order to lay you under new restrictions,
which were not thought of in the Act of the 12th of Queen Anne,'--I
say, had this been the case, I might have expected some such treatment
as that I now meet with.
"It must be owned that my case is very hard; but I hope I am the first,
and for my country's sake I hope I shall be the last, to suffer by
pinning my faith upon an English Act of Parliament. Had I received my
just reward--for certainly it may be so called after forty years' close
application of the talent which it has pleased God to give me--then my
invention would have taken the course which all improvements in this
world do; that is, I must have instructed workmen in its principles and
execution, which I should have been glad of an opportunity of doing.
But how widely different this is from what is now proposed, viz., for
me to instruct people that I know nothing of, and such as may know
nothing of mechanics; and, if I do not make them understand to their
satisfaction, I may then have nothing!
"Hard fate indeed to me, but still harder to the world, which may be
deprived of this my invention, which must be the case, except by my
open and free manner in describing all the principles of it to
gentlemen and noblemen who almost at all times have had free recourse
to my instruments. And if any of these workmen have been so ingenious
as to have got my invention, how far you may please to reward them for
their piracy must be left for you to determine; and I must set myself
down in old age, and thank God I can be more easy in that I have the
conquest, and though I have no reward, than if I had come short of the
matter and by some delusion had the reward!"
The Right Honourable the Earl of Egmont was in the chair of the Board
of Longitude on the day when this letter was read--June 13, 1765. The
Commissioners were somewhat startled by the tone which the inventor had
taken. Indeed, they were rather angry. Mr. Harrison, who was in
waiting, was called in. After some rather hot speaking, and after a
proposal was made to Harrison which he said he would decline to accede
to "so long as a drop of English blood remained in his body," he left
the room. Matters were at length arranged. The Act of Parliament (5
Geo. III. cap. 20) awarded him, upon a full discovery of the principles
of his time-keeper, the payment of such a sum, as with the 2500L. he
had already received, would make one half of the reward; and the
remaining half was to be paid when other chronometers had been made
after his design, and their capabilities fully proved. He was also
required to assign his four chronometers--one of which was styled a
watch--to the use of the public.
Harrison at once proceeded to give full explanations of the principles
of his chronometer to Dr. Maskelyne, and six other gentlemen, who had
been appointed to receive them. He took his timekeeper to pieces in
their presence, and deposited in their hands correct drawings of the
same, with the parts, so that other skilful makers might construct
similar chronometers on the same principles. Indeed, there was no
difficulty in making them; after his explanations and drawings had been
published. An exact copy of his last watch was made by the ingenious
Mr. Kendal; and was used by Captain Cook in his three years'
circumnavigation of the world, to his perfect satisfaction.
England had already inaugurated that series of scientific expeditions
which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to raise her naval
reputation to so great a height. In these expeditions, the officers,
the sailors, and the scientific men, were constantly brought face to
face with unforeseen difficulties and dangers, which brought forth
their highest qualities as men. There was, however, some intermixture
of narrowness in the minds of those who sent them forth. For instance,
while Dr. Priestley was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to
join Captain Cook's second expedition to the Southern Seas, as an
astronomer. Priestley gave his assent, and made arrangements to set
out. But some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment had
been cancelled, as the Board of Longitude objected to his theology.
Priestley's otherwise gentle nature was roused. "What I am, and what
they are, in respect of religion," he wrote to Banks, in December,
1771, "might easily have been known before the thing was proposed to me
at all. Besides, I thought that this had been a business of
philosophy, and not of divinity. If, however, this be the case, I
shall hold the Board of Longitude in extreme contempt."
Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the Resolution, and
Captain Wallis to the command of the Adventure, in November, 1771.
They proceeded to equip the ships; and amongst the other instruments
taken on board Captain Cook's ship, were two timekeepers, one made by
Mr. Larcum Kendal, on Mr. Harrison's principles, and the other by Mr.
John Arnold, on his own. The expedition left Deptford in April, 1772;
and shortly afterwards sailed for the South Seas. "Mr. Kendal's watch"
is the subject of frequent notices in Captain Cook's account. At the
Cape of Good Hope, it is said to have "answered beyond all
expectation." Further south, in the neighbourhood of Cape Circumcision,
he says, "the use of the telescope is found difficult at first, but a
little practice will make it familiar. By the assistance of the watch
we shall be able to discover the greatest error this method of
observing the longitude at sea is liable to." It was found that
Harrison's watch was more correct than Arnold's, and when near Cape
Palliser in New Zealand, Cook says, "this day at noon, when we attended
the winding-up of the watches, the fusee of Mr. Arnold's would not turn
round, so that after several unsuccessful trials we were obliged to let
it go down." From this time, complete reliance was placed upon
Harrison's chronometer. Some time later, Cook says, "I must here take
notice that our longitude can never be erroneous while we have so good
a guide as Mr. Kendal's watch." It may be observed, that at the
beginning of the voyage, observations were made by the lunar tables;
but these, being found unreliable, were eventually discontinued.
To return to Harrison. He continued to be worried by official
opposition. His claims were still unsatisfied. His watch at home
underwent many more trials. Dr. Maskelyne, the Royal Astronomer, was
charged with being unfavourable to the success of chronometers, being
deeply interested in finding the longitude by lunar tables; although
this method is now almost entirely superseded by the chronometer.
Harrison accordingly could not get the certificate of what was due to
him under the Act of Parliament. Years passed before he could obtain
the remaining amount of his reward. It was not until the year 1773, or
forty-five years after the commencement of his experiments, that he
succeeded in obtaining it. The following is an entry in the list of
supplies granted by Parliament in that year: "June 14. To John
Harrison, as a further reward and encouragement over and above the sums
already received by him, for his invention of a timekeeper for
ascertaining the longitude at sea, and his discovery of the principles
upon which the same was constructed, 8570 pounds 0s. 0d."
John Harrison did not long survive the settlement of his claims; for he
died on the 24th of March, 1776, at the age of eighty-three. He was
buried at the south-west corner of Hampstead parish churchyard, where a
tombstone was erected to his memory, and an inscription placed upon it
commemorating his services. His wife survived him only a year; she
died at seventy-two, and was buried in the same tomb. His son, William
Harrison, F.R.S., a deputy-lientenant of the counties of Monmouth and
Middlesex, died in 1815, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and was also
interred there. The tomb having stood for more than a century, became
somewhat dilapidated; when the Clock-makers' Company of the City of
London took steps in 1879 to reconstruct it, and recut the
inscriptions. An appropriate ceremony took place at the final
uncovering of the tomb.
But perhaps the most interesting works connected with John Harrison and
the great labour of his life, are the wooden clock at the South
Kensington Museum, and the four chronometers made by him for the
Government, which are still preserved at the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich. The three early ones are of great weight, and can scarcely
be moved without some bodily labour. But the fourth, the marine
chronometer or watch, is of small dimensions, and is easily handled.
It still possesses the power of going accurately; as does "Mr. Kendal's
watch," which was made exactly after it. These will always prove the
best memorials of this distinguished workman.
Before concluding this brief notice of the life and labours of John
Harrison, it becomes me to thank most cordially Mr. Christie,
Astronomer-Royal, for his kindness in exhibiting the various
chronometers deposited at the Greenwich Observatory, and for his
permission to inspect the minutes of the Board of Longitude, where the
various interviews between the inventor and the commissioners,
extending over many years, are faithfully but too procrastinatingly
recorded. It may be finally said of John Harrison, that by his
invention of the chronometer--the ever-sleepless and ever-trusty friend
of the mariner--he conferred an incalculable benefit on science and
navigation, and established his claim to be regarded as one of the
greatest benefactors of mankind.
POstscript.--In addition to the information contained in this chapter,
I have been recently informed by the Rev. Mr. Sankey, vicar of Wragby,
that the family is quite extinct in the parish, except the wife of a
plumber, who claims relationship with Harrison. The representative of
the Winn family was created Lord St. Oswald in 1885. Harrison is not
quite forgotten at Foulby. The house in which he was born was a low
thatched cottage, with two rooms, one used as a living room, and the
other as a sleeping room. The house was pulled down about forty years
ago; but the entrance door, being of strong, hard wood, is still
preserved. The vicar adds that young Harrison would lie out on the
grass all night in summer time, studying the details of his wooden
clock.
Footnotes to Chapter III.
[1] Originally published in Longmam's Magazine, but now rewritten and
enlarged.
[2] Popular Astronomy. By Simon Newcomb, LL.D., Professor U.S. Naval
Observatory.
[3] Biographia Britannica, vol. vi. part 2, p. 4375. This volume was
published in 1766, before the final reward had been granted to Harrison.
[4] This clock is in the possession of Abraham Riley, of Bromley, near
Leeds. He informs us that the clock is made of wood throughout,
excepting the escapement and the dial, which are made of brass. It
bears the mark of "John Harrison, 1713."
[5] Harrison's compensation pendulum was afterwards improved by Arnold,
Earnshaw, and other English makers. Dent's prismatic balance is now
considered the best.
[6] See Mr. Folkes's speech to the Royal Soc., 30th Nov., 1749.
[7] No trustworthy lunar tables existed at that time. It was not until
the year 1753 that Tobias Mayer, a German, published the first lunar
tables which could be relied upon. For this, the British Government
afterwards awarded to Mayer's widow the sum of 5000L.
[8] Sir Isaac Newton gave his design to Edmund Halley, then
Astronomer-Royal. Halley laid it on one side, and it was found among
his papers after his death in 1742, twenty-five years after the death
of Newton. A similar omission was made by Sir G. B. Airy, which led to
the discovery of Neptune being attributed to Leverrier instead of to
Adams.