 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Select > Who • What • When • Where • Which |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Timeline |
|
 |
|
Item |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Harrison, Solved Longitude - 1773 > 
John Harrison was an English clockmaker, who designed and built the world's first successful chronometer (maritime clock), one whose accuracy was great enough to allow the determination of longitude over long distances.
In 1714, the British Government offered, by Act of Parliament, £20,000 for a solution which could provide longitude to within half-a-degree (2 minutes of time). The longitude problem was eventually solved by a working class joiner from Lincolnshire with little formal education. John Harrison took on the scientific and academic establishment of his time and won the longitude prize through extraordinary mechanical insight, talent and determination.
H5 was put on trial by King George III himself in 1772, and performed superbly. The Board of Longitude, however, refused to recognise the results of this trial, so John and William petitioned Parliament. They were finally awarded £8750 by Act of Parliament in June 1773. Perhaps more importantly, John Harrison was finally recognised as having solved the longitude problem.
|
| |
|
|
|
More on this Website >
• http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/sh ... ebDoc.355/viewPage/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eratosthenes, Measuring the Earth
Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek scholar who lived and worked in Cyrene and Alexandria. Eratosthenes was director of the famous library in Alexandria, and is known for... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hipparchus, Astronomer
Hipparchus was the most important Greek astronomers of his time. He very accurately cataloged over 1,000 stars and invented the mathematical science of trigonometry. Ptol... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charles II of England
Charles II was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 1649 until his death. His father Charles I had been executed in 1649, following the English Ci... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Captain James Cook
It happened that in 1766 the Government were looking for a man to command a ship for a cruise to the Pacific with the object of observing the transit of Venus. James Cook... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George III, King of Great Britain
Britain's King George III was the 18th century monarch who lost the fight to keep control over the American colonies. The third monarch of the Hanover house and the first... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Delambre, The Metric System
In 1795 Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre was admitted to the Bureau des Longitudes, becoming President in 1800. In 1801 he was appointed secretary to the Académie des Scienc... |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|