HMS Beagle Chronometer – John Harrison

HMS Beagle

The BBC “History Of The World In A Hundred Objects” series recently cited some of John Harrison’s significant horological inventions. None is more significant though than his work with maritime chronometers, devices that literally revolutionised the science of navigation at sea. The Comitti Grasshopper clock is a faithful reproduction of one of Harrisons more exotic chronometers but the BBC series focused on the historic time keeping device that was kept aboard HMS Beagle and accompanied Darwin on his epic voyages.

See more on the article here --- with photos.

Harrison Precision Pendulum Clock

The BBC has recently broadcast a series of historical documentaries on Radio 4 entitled History of The World in One Hundred Objects. The series attempts to define the inventions or artifacts that have had a marked effect on the development of society, the evolution of science / engineering and ultimately defined aspects of modern life today. Obviously, the clock and time keeping is a very important aspect of this and a number of John Harrison’s inventions and patents have been cited in the documentary.

This is an interesting article about his Precision Pendulum Clock that became a vital time reference instrument, which played a significant role in maritime time keeping and navigation. In some ways it was a little like the base time atomic clocks of today.

BBC Harrison Precision Pendulum Clock