John Harrison
Early Life
John Harrison was born in Foulby, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1693. His father, Henry Harrison, was a carpenter who specialized in building and repairing clocks, barometers and other precision instruments. This early exposure to the principles of mechanics and measurement would prove crucial to John's future career.
Career
In 1713, at the age of twenty, Harrison built his first longcase clock, or grandfather clock. He used wood for the gears and other parts, a common practice at the time. Over the next few years, he made several improvements to the design, including the invention of the grasshopper escapement, a mechanism that reduces friction and increases accuracy.
In 1728, Harrison moved to London to pursue his ambition of solving the longitude problem. This was the challenge of determining a ship's east-west position at sea, a problem that had led to numerous shipwrecks and loss of life. The British government had established the Board of Longitude in 1714, offering a prize of £20,000 (equivalent to over £2.5 million today) to anyone who could devise a practical solution.
Harrison spent the next 31 years working on this problem. He built four marine timekeepers, known as H1, H2, H3 and H4. Each was an improvement on the last, and the final version, H4, was a pocket watch-sized device that finally won him the longitude prize in 1773.
Legacy
John Harrison's work revolutionized navigation and made long-distance sea travel significantly safer. His inventions were the precursors to the modern chronometer, an essential tool for any navigator. His story is a testament to the power of perseverance, innovation, and mechanical genius.