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
