The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-02-09

/ neous TO considerable extent 1t NAV
: perhaps, console some modern inventors t,
D know that l / years elapsed before Moril
r received his reward in the form of pen
2 sion of 1000 livres-littIe more than f8:
"a year.
In 1910 Peter, Herigone proposed differ
5 ent devices for finding longitudes, nont
of which was so practicable as Morin's; il
| 1917 Leonard Duliris published theory
of longitude that only served to display it.
authors ignorance of mathematics, and in
} 1868 German scientist invented an adom
eter 'for measuring a ships way" which
though possessing some merit, was deemed
unreliable by committee of academicians
appointed under Louis XIV. to examine it.
1t will thus be seen that quite century
elapsed after the distinct want of an exact
method of measuring longitude, was felt,
and efforts made looking to its discovery
before any device of much practical value
was produced, for none of those already
mentioned were so free from the danger of
grave error as to be fully relied upon by
navigators. Indeed, it was not until quite
near the close of the 18th century that the
great improvements made by Dr. Hooke
and Mr.. Huygens in the art Of watchmak-
ing began to suggest the idea of using these
hitherto crude and unreliable machines for
the purpose of measuring distances and as
certaing the longitudinal position of places.
Germina Frixius, it is said, had suggested
this as possible method as far back as
1880, but at that date timepieces had not
been developed sufficiently to be of much
service for this purpose
From about the year 100 the history
of the discovery of longitude becomes
identical with the much better known his
tory of the improvements rapidly succeed
ing each other, which carried the art Of
watch and clock making to practical per-
feetion in the development of the mariners
chronometer, by the aid of which he is now
able to calculate his position at sea on any
pars of the globes surface with marvellous
accuracy.
1t is noteworthy that Newton himself
framed the act of Parliament before men
toned, by which England offered a reward
Of e20,000 ''to any one who should dis
cover a method of finding the longitude at
sea to a half degree or 10 leagues, Els, 900
if within two-thirds Of degree, and 910,-
if within degree, or20 leagues. Newton
appears to have taken deep personal In
terest in this branch Of scientific investiga-
ton, and it was due to his encouragement
that Henry Sully, an Enlishman, devoted
his lifetime to the improvement of time
keepers for the discovery of the longitude.
The famous Julian Leroy was Sully S pupil
and followed in the footsteps of his master.
In an English magazine published in
1894 find an article entitled in the quaint
head lining of that era, "A Brief Account
of Attempts to Discover the Longitude,
and the Construction of Timekecpers for
that Purpose, with the Great Accuracy to
Which These Have Lately Been Brought.
The following extract from the above seems
likely to be quite as accurate, and IS GER
tainly as well composed as those which
serve to I'LL some pages of our modern ey-
clopedias
''In 1T26 Mr.. John Harrison, who was
bred under his father, country carpenter,
made two clocks, chiefly in wood, to which
be applied an escapement and compound
pendulum Of his own invention These
went so well that for ten years they erred
scarcely a second a month. But as the
motion of the pendulum would necessarily
be deranged by that of ship at sea, he set
himself to make watch, which, in a voy-
age to Lisbon and back again, corrected an
error of 70 in the ships reckoning. This
was in 1886. After this he made two
others, for the latter of which in 1745 he
received from the Royal Society Sir God
frey Copley's gold medal. With this time
keeper his son, Mr. William Harrison, went
to Jamaica in 1861 on board his majesty's
ship Deptford, aud it was found to deter
mine the longitude of Port Royal in that
island within FIVE seconds of what it had
before been ascertained to be, an obserya-
ton of the transit of Mercury in l743. 1t
appeared also to have erred but | minute
and 54l seconds during the whole voyage.
This being within the limits described by
the act, Mr. Harrison claimed the reward
of 100000 Difficulties, however, were
started, and some doubts raised about the
manner in which the longitude had been
ascertained both at Jamaica and Ports
mouth. Yet soon after $4,000 was adj
vanced him on account, and in 1764 Mr.,
William Harrison made a voyage to Bar
BADGES with the timekeeper. With him
were sent out proper persons to make OBJ
servations, and in consequence of this proof
$4,000 more was paid 10 Mr.. Harrison on
his discovering the principles of its con-
struetion, with a promise of the other
e1O,000 as soon as machines constructed
by others on the same principles should be
found to answer equally well.
In 1T72 the celebrated Capt. Cook took
with him on his voyage around the world
a timepieee which proved even more salts
factory than Harrison's, never erring quite
144 seconds in a day, and on this Harrison
received the reward in full In the same
year he produced watch which ran for
10 weeks in the kings private observatory
at Richmond, and varied but A. seconds
during that period.
In 1867 France came rapidly to the
front in the manufacture of accurate time
keepers under the leadership of the famous
Lewis Berthond, and in 1889 Mr.. Monet,
one of the astronomers of the observatory,
made a series of experiments with a watch
made by Berthond, extending over period
of nine months, during which time it was
alternately baked in an oven and exposed
to low temperatures, without affecting it
more than few hundredths of a secondin
the mean of daily variations. This watch
was but trife over two inches in diameter,
Will. the last one made by Harrison had a
diameter of six inches.
From this time On the history of watch
making is familiar to the general reader,
but few are aware to how great an extent
the first steps, as briefly detailed above,
were due to organized efforts in the direc-
ton of the discovery of the longitude.