Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1912-01-12

dark nights when the stars could not
be seen. so various devices had to be
pressed into service )
The most popular form of old sea
clock was the sandglasa Many Of
these glasses were timed to run TWEEN
ty-four 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 a bell. 1t was customary to est.
mate the duration of any incident t,y
so many glasses. ITO 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-
c1ably 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 q 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
screwfng of eyes and waggling of the
quadrant the captain would bawl out
to the mate, make It - bellsy' the
number varying according to personal
idiosyncrasies.
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
nsh government in 1714 offered f10,-
600 to any one inventing a: method OF
gree, or sixty miles; f15O0O il within
forty miles and 10000 If within thirty
miles. H.a'
John Harrison, an obscure Yorkshire
carpenter, who had achieved. local
reputation by repairing and cleaning
clocks, came forward with a chronom-
eter which at once attracted attention.
Through the influence Of DR.: HALEY he
was enabled to make a voyage in q
government vessel to Lisbon, where he
succeeded in determining the longitude
to within l degree 30 minutes. ': 80
For this achievement he was grant;
ed f50O to enable him to proceed with
his invention. After thirty years hard
toll he produced a chronometer on
which the present marine thermometer
- based. His invention was shaped
like a large watch, and in 1851 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 minute
as seconds. -: 3. ->,:.,r .-7< 49,;
/ The accuracy OF the chronometer
thus enabled the longitude to be deter
mined within eighteen miles. result
which exceeded the admfralty' most
sanguine expectations, After further
demonstrations an set of parliament
was passed in: 1765 awarding Harrison
f20.0 Co., half Of the money TO be- paid
as soon as he explained how his time
keeper was constructed and tho Ne
malnder when the government was
convinced. that these timekeepefs could
| be made by others !, Despite: the full
sdllment Of these conditions, Harrison
had to wait several years before the
money was paid over. @s ::Ssss&s: : : + =
Larcum Kendall. who had been Har-
rison's apprentice and who was ulti-
mately his successor. followed on the
lines laid down by his master and pro-
duced thermometer which was used
by Captain Cook during his daring
voyage in the Resolution. OF this
chron0meter Cook wrote, Our longi-
tude can never be erroneous while we
have so good guide as Mr.. Kendaps
watch" - F., g azs..5- u - ia.
Various horologists have introduced
90 many improy ements that little trace
OF Harris0n's model is to be- disceEnede
IN the modern chronometer, though TO
him must be- assigned the credit aofs
pointing out the, way 80. ;,,-;ss i
E$ns.>, 5.
The heart has reasons that rsasoa
- not understand. -