John Harrison, who is thought to be one of England’s best clockmakers, came up with the marine chronometer. This tool helps ships find their longitude at sea, which makes long-distance sea travel safer. His invention changed the way sailors used to sail on the seas and became a turning point in sea travel. The problem of figuring out the longitude accurately was so big that the British Parliament offered 20,000 to anyone who could come up with a good solution. Harrison set out to solve the problem. He was the son of a carpenter, and he was very interested in clocks. He worked hard for many years to make many different kinds of clocks. The Royal Society tested several of his clocks and liked what they saw, but none of his first models met the requirements to win the prize. After working on, changing, and improvising his clock models for almost 30 years, he came up with a good solution: a marine watch that could measure longitude while sailing. Even though he didn’t have a lot of education, the carpenter was able to solve a major problem in sailing before scientists and astronomers could. Harrison solved one of the most difficult problems in technology at the end of the 18th century when he made the accurate marine chronometer.
Early years and childhood
He was born to Henry, a carpenter, and Elizabeth, his wife. He was the oldest of five children, and he helped his father with his work as a carpenter.
As a child, he got smallpox and was given a watch to keep him busy. So, he became interested in clocks and would often tinker with old ones and study how they worked. As a child, he also liked music.
John Harrison’s Career
Harrison was mostly self-taught when it came to making clocks. There is no record of him ever being taught by a clockmaker. Early on, he started making clocks with the help of his younger brother, James. In 1713, the brothers made their first clock. In 1715 and 1717, they made two long-case grandfather clocks.
He made a clock for the tower of a nearby manor house in 1720. He made the parts that need to be oiled out of a tropical hardwood that naturally leaks oil and doesn’t need to be oiled in any other way.
His skills as a carpenter helped him a lot when he made clocks. He made the wooden parts of clocks out of oak and lignum vitae. He also improved clocks by coming up with the grasshopper escapement.
Between 1725 and 1728, he made at least three pendulum clocks with James. During this time, he came up with the grid-iron pendulum. People think that the precision pendulum clocks he made were the most accurate clocks ever made at the time.
In 1714, the British Parliament offered a prize of 20,000 Pounds for a practical way to figure out a ship’s longitude. The Board of Longitude was in charge of giving out the prize. Even by 1730, no one had claimed the prize, so Harrison went to London to build an instrument for this purpose.
He came up with a plan for a marine clock and drew pictures of it. He told the Astronomer Royal, Edmond Halley, about it, and Halley put him in touch with the watch and instrument maker George Graham. Graham helped Harrison in many ways besides just giving him money.
Harrison spent five years working on his first Sea Clock, also called H1. In 1736, the clock was put to the test, and its design was praised. He got a grant of 500 Pounds to keep working on this design.
After a few more years of work, he made the H2 in 1741. But Britain was at war with Spain at the time, so his idea couldn’t be tried out. But he got another grant to keep going with his work.
He worked for 17 years to make the H3. But he was unhappy with how this model worked and started looking for other ways to make it work better. He thought that a watch-sized timepiece would be more useful than a “Sea Clock.”
After another six years of work, he made the H4, the first “Sea Watch.” This watch was made after looking at the way Thomas Mudge, Graham’s successor, made his watches. Even though the watch worked very well, the Parliament only gave him half of the prize money and told him to change the way it was made.
He worked on H5, which was his second watch at sea. But he was disappointed with Parliament and asked King George II for help. In 1772, King George II tested the watch himself and found that it was accurate. Harrison was given $8,750 for his work when he was 80 years old, in 1773.
A Big Job
He made the marine chronometer, which is an accurate clock for finding longitude by looking at the stars. It was a big step forward in technology in the 1800s, and it took him more than 30 years of hard work to make it happen.
Awards & Achievements
He never got the official $20,000 Longitude Prize, but he did get paid $10,000 and $8,750 in two separate payments. He was also given several grants by the Board of Longitude so that he could keep working until the H5 was made.
Personal History and Legacies
In 1718, he got married to Elizabeth Barrel. There was a child. His wife died in 1726.
He got married again to a woman whose name was also Elizabeth. This couple was together for 50 years and had two kids during that time. His son William helped him design and make clocks and watches with his father.
In 1776, on his 83rd birthday, he passed away.
Estimated Net worth
M. John Harrison’s estimated net worth is $9 million, and he makes most of his money from blogging, writing novels, and writing science fiction. We don’t know enough about M John Harrison’s cars or about his way of life.