The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-12-29
old ship CLOCKS,
Crude Devices Mariners Used In
Reckoning Time.
sANDeLAss MOST POPULAR.

But such was not the case in the I'D
sailing days. and in order to acquire
even the vaguest idea of longitude and
time the seaman had recourse to curl
Gus devices.
Crude as these devices appear COM
pared with present day instruments,
they save the mariner from chaos and
destruction, and even IL he could not
name the hour with any degree of GER
tainty he at least knew the day of the
week.
Eclipses Of the moon and the posi-
tons of the stars afforded little guide
to the skipper. who was, nevertheless,
greatly handicapped by his lack of az
Economical knowledge and the inferior
quality of his spyglass. Moreover.
eclipses could not be arranged for ev-
cry plight in the week. and there were
dark nights when the stars corlG hot
be seen. ~ vanUus devices had to be
pressed into service.
The most popular form OF old sen
clock was the sandglass. Many of
these glasses were timed to run twen-
ty-four hours. and prior to the ship
leaving land the glass was set exactly
and turned as soon as the sand ran
down the skipper could reckon the
days with fair accuracy.
Side by side with the large glass were
placed half hour and minute glasses.
The man at the helm carefully watch
ed this old sea clock and announced
the time at regular intervals by strik-
ing bell. 1t was customary to esti-
mate the duration of any incident by
so many glasses. "To fog the glass"
was an operation very congenal to
lazy seamen. 1t consisted In turning
the glass before all the sand had run
down so that the watch was appre-
ciably shortened.
When the twenty-four hour glass
was employed little Juggling was In
dulged In for the purpose of finding
the longitude. The difference between
the twenty -four hour glass and the
time by the sun was estimated and
this difference was held to represent
the longitude east or west, according
as the suns time might be before or
after the time returned by the glass.
Taking the sun" was weird and
wonderful operation. Clumsy quad
rants were utilized. and toward mid
day the captain appeared on deck to
perform his solemn duty. After much
screwng OF eyes and waggiing OF the
quadrant the captain would bawl out
IN NAl 4 lxIl.
number varying according to personal
idiosyncrasies.
a demand for more satisfactory
device for estimating time at sea was
responsible for experiments being
made with pendulum clocks, though
with little success. The interest of
inventors was aroused when the Eng
lish government in 17i4 offered ElO,-
600 to any one inventing method OF
reckoning longitude to within de-
gree. or sixty miles; fl5,000 il within
forty miles and 100000 if within thirty
miles.
J"hn Harrison, an obscure Yorkshire
carpenter. who had achieved local
reputation by repairing and cleaning
clocks came forward with chronol :
eter which at once attracted attention
Through the influence OF DIR. HALEY ne
was enabled to make II voyage In Il
government vessel to Lisbon, where he
succeeded in determining the longitude
to within degree 80 minutes.
Fer this achievement he was grant
OH Ihln IN nnnhla M tn
his Invention. After thirty years hard
toll he produced chrOnOmeter on
which the present marine chronometer
Is based. His invention was shaped
like large watch, and in i76l Har-
rison's son embarked for Jamaica In
order to carry out tests, On the voy-
age out the chrOnometer was only 81
seconds In error, and during the whole
trip from Portsmouth to jamaica and
back the variation was only 1 minute
54.5 seconds.
The accuracy Of the chronometer
thus enabled the longitude to be deter
mined within eighteen miles, a result
which exceeded the admiralty's most
sanguine expectations. After further
demonstrations an act of parliament
was passed in 1865 awarding Harrison
f20,OOO, half of the money to be paid
as soon as he explained how his time
keeper was constructed and the re-
mainder when the government was
convinced that these timekeepers could
be made by others Despite the full
iillment OF these conditions. Harrison
had 20 whit several years before the
money was paid over.
Lnrcum Kendall. who had been Har.
rison's apprentice ana who was nlti-
mately his successor, followed on the
lines laid down by his master and pro-
duced a chronometer which was used
by Captain Cook during his daring
voyage In the Resolution. OF this
chronometer Cook wrote, "Our longi-
tude cun never be erroneous while we
have so good guide as Mr. Kendal's
watch"
Vnrinus horologists have introduced
% many improvements that little trace
Of Harrlson's model Is to be dlscerned
In the modern chronometer though to
him must he assigned the credit of