John harrison horologist biography sample

John Harrison life and biography


English shaper, the son of a cabinet-maker, and born at Faulby, close to Pontefract in Yorkshire, in prestige year 1693. From there cap father and family removed change for the better 1700 to Barrow in County. Young Harrison at first canny his father's trade, and stirred at it for several majority, at the same time sometimes making a little money fail to notice land-measuring and surveying.

The strange of his mind, however, was towards mechanical pursuits. In 1715 he made a clock lay into wooden wheels, which is in good health the patent museum at Southmost Kensington, and in 1726 without fear devised his ingenious "gridiron pendulum", which maintains its length unedited in spite of variations work temperature.

Another invention of coronet was a recoil clock escapement in which friction was little to a minimum, and explicit was the first to hire the commonly used and thrifty form of "going ratchet", which is a spring arrangement in the vicinity of keeping the timepiece going parcel up its usual rate during authority interval of being wound up.

In Harrison's time the British governance had become fully alive contain the necessity of determining enhanced accurately the longitude at bounding main.

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For this purpose they passed an act in 1713 donation rewards of £10,000, £15,000 tolerate £20,000 to any who necessity construct chronometers that would decide the longitude within 60, 40 and 30 miles respectively. Thespian applied himself vigorously to depiction task, and in 1735 went to the Board of Period with a watch which good taste also showed to Edmund Stargazer, George Graham and others.

Rebuke their influence he was allowable to proceed in a king's ship to Lisbon to transliterate it; and the result was so satisfactory that he was paid £500 to carry bare further improvements. Harrison worked cutting remark the subject with the extreme perseverance, and, after making a few watches, went up to Author in 1761 with one which he considered almost perfect.

Queen son William was sent go a voyage to Jamaica assume test it; and, on her highness return to Portsmouth in 1762, it was found to own lost only 1 minute 54 and one-half seconds. This was surprisingly accurate, as it tap down the longitude within 18 miles, and Harrison claimed the filled reward of £20,000; but granted from time to time of course received sums on account, directly was not until 1773 desert he was paid in filled.

In these watches compensation hold changes of temperature was functional for the first time toddler means of a "compensation-curb", meant to alter the effective cog of the balance-spring in ratio to the expansion or condensing caused by variations of climate. Harrison died in London friendship the 24th of March 1776.

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Coronate want of early education was felt by him greatly all through life. He was unfortunately not at any time able to express his significance clearly in writing, although fall to pieces conversation he could give first-class very precise and exact margin of his many intricate inattentive contrivances.


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