The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1912-01-05
OLD SHIP CLOCKS.
Crude Devices Mariners Used In
Reckoning Time.
SANDGLASS MOST POPULAR.
" II Were Carefully Attended to tho
Skipper Could Tell tho Days Fairly
Well, but II Was Often JussIed-The
First Chronometers.

now a matter OF the utmost simplicity
But such was not the case in the old
sailing days. and In order to acquire
even the vaguest idea Of longitude and
time the seaman had recourse to curl
Gus (hvices.
Crude as these devices appear com
pared with present day instruments,
they save the mariner from chaos and
destruction. and even If 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 a little guide
to the skipper. who was, nevertheless.
greatly handicapped by his lack Of as
Economical knowledge and the inferior
quality of his spygass. Moreover,
eclipses could not be arranged for ev-
cry night In the week. and there were
dark nights when the stars could moi
be seen, so various devices had to be
pressed into service.
The most popular form Of old sea
clock was the sandglaSs. Many OF
these glasses were timed to run TWEEN
tyfour hours. and prior TO the ship
leaving land the glass was set exactly
at noon. If it were carefully watched
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 congenial 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 aud 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 n 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
screwlng of eyes, and waggling of the
al m hn wi
to the mate. MAKE it - bells" the
number varying according TO personal
idlosyncrasies.
A demand for a 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 l7li offered El0,-
600 to any one invcnting method OF
reckoning longitude to within n de
gree, or sixty miles; $4,000 If within
forty miles and 100000 if within thirty
miles.
John Harrison, an obscure Yorkshire
carpenter, who had achieved n local
reputation by repairing and cleaning
clocks. came forward with n chronom-
eter which at once attracted attention.
Through the influence Of DR.. HALEY he
was enabled TO make n voyage In n
government vessel to Lisbon, where he
succeeded In determining the longitude
TO within degree 80 minutes.
For this achievement he was grant
cd $500 to enable him TO proceed with
his invention. After thirty years hard
toll he produced n chronometer on
which the present marine chronometer
is based Ills invention was shaped
like q large watch, and I'm 1901 lIar-
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 | minute
54.5 seconds.
The accuracy Of the chronomcter
thus enabled the longitude to he deter
mined within eighteen miles. n result
which exceeded the admiralty's most
sanguine expectations. After further
demonstrations an act Of parliament
was passed in 1865 awarding Harrison
100000. 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 wis
convinced that these timekeepers could
be made by others. Despite the full.
fillment OF these conditions, Harrison
had to wait several years before the
money was paid over.
Larcum Kendall. who had been Har.
rison's apprentice and who was Xlti.
mately his successor. followed on the
lines laid down by his master and pro-
duced chronometer which was used
by Captain Cook during his daring
voyage in the Resolution. or this
chronometer Cook wrote. Our longi.
tude can never be erroneous while we
have so good guide as Mr.. Kendal's