Harrison decoded : towards a perfect pendulum clock /
Harrison decoded : towards a perfect pendulum clock /
edited by Rory McEvoy and Jonathan Betts.
- First edition.
- xii, 183 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Brings together the output of a forty-year collaborative research project that unpicked and put into practice the fine details of John Harrison's extraordinary pendulum clock system. Harrison predicted that his unique method of making pendulum clocks could provide as much as one-hundred-times the stability of those made by his contemporaries. However, his final publication, which promised to describe the system, was a chaotic jumble of information, much of which had nothing to do with clockwork. One contemporary reviewer of Harrison's book could only suggest that the end result was a product of Harrison's 'superannuated dotage.' The focus of this book centres on the making, adjusting, and testing of Clock B which was the subject of various trials at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The modern history of Clock B is accompanied by scientific analysis of the clock system, Clock B's performance, the methods of data-gathering alongside historical perspectives on Harrison's clockmaking, that of his contemporaries, and some evaluation of the possible influence of early 18th century scientific thought.
9780198816812 0198816812
2019947640
GBC053435 bnb
019782460 Uk
Harrison, John, 1693-1776.
Chronometers--History.--England
Pendulum--History.
UK-London clock antique Longitude Harrison Greenwich Marine Chronometer United Kingdom Navigation Museum
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Brings together the output of a forty-year collaborative research project that unpicked and put into practice the fine details of John Harrison's extraordinary pendulum clock system. Harrison predicted that his unique method of making pendulum clocks could provide as much as one-hundred-times the stability of those made by his contemporaries. However, his final publication, which promised to describe the system, was a chaotic jumble of information, much of which had nothing to do with clockwork. One contemporary reviewer of Harrison's book could only suggest that the end result was a product of Harrison's 'superannuated dotage.' The focus of this book centres on the making, adjusting, and testing of Clock B which was the subject of various trials at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The modern history of Clock B is accompanied by scientific analysis of the clock system, Clock B's performance, the methods of data-gathering alongside historical perspectives on Harrison's clockmaking, that of his contemporaries, and some evaluation of the possible influence of early 18th century scientific thought.
9780198816812 0198816812
2019947640
GBC053435 bnb
019782460 Uk
Harrison, John, 1693-1776.
Chronometers--History.--England
Pendulum--History.
UK-London clock antique Longitude Harrison Greenwich Marine Chronometer United Kingdom Navigation Museum