Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-29
THE OLD SEA CLOCK.
Instrument Upon Which Marine
Chronometer is Based.

i ity, and both passengers and crew
can learn the hour OF the day at d
glance. But such was not the case III
the old sailing days, and in order to
| acquire even the vaguest idea of
/ longitude and time the seaman had re-
| course to curious devices
Crude as these devices appear COM
pared with present day instruments,
/ they saved the mariner from chaos
| and destruction, and even If he could
/ not name the hour with any degree
of certainty he OF least knew the day
of the week. Which must have been
no small comfort when on the high
seas.
Eclipses OF the moon and the posi-
tons of the stars afforded little
guide to the skipper. who was never
theless greatly Handicapped by his
/ lack of astronomical knowledge and
the inferior quality of the spyglass.
Moreover, eelipses could not be ar
ranged fer every night in the week
and there We're dark night when the
stars could not be seen, SO various de-
vices had TO be pressed into service.
The most popular form of old sea
clock was the sandglass, which great
ly resembled the present day egg boil
Ell. Many of these glasses were timed
to run "a hours, and prior to the ship
| leaving land the glass was set exact
" 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
We're placed half hour and minute
| glasses The man at the helm care
| fully watched this old sea clock and
announced the time at regular inter-
walls by striking a bell. 1t was Gus
| tornary to estimate the duration of
any incident by SO many glasses. tie
fog the glass was an operation very
icongeniai to lazy seamen. 1t consist
ed in turning the glass before all the
| sand had run down, so that the watch
was appreeiably shortened.
When the "A hour glass was en-
ployei a little juggling was INDUCED
liz for the purpose of finding the
longitude. The difference between the
a 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 a weird and
wonderful operation. Clumsy quad
rants were utilized. and towards mid
day the captain appeared on deck to
perform his solemn duty. After much
scfewing the captain would bawl out
to the mate in omniscient tones,
MAKE it--bells.' the number vary
ing according to personal idiosyncra-
sies.
A demand for more satisfactory
device for estimating time at sea was
responsible for experiments being
made with pendulum clocks of very
rude design though with little success
The interest of inventors was aroused
when the English government in liza
|, offered the sum of 100000 to anyone
inventing a method of reckoning
longitude to within a degree of 10
; miles, e15,000 if within 40 miles, aud
100000 Il within 80 miles
John Harrison, an obscure York
shire carpenter who had achieved a
local reputation by repairing and
cleaning clocks, came forward with
! ehronometer which at once attracted
. attention. Through the influence of
, DR. HALEY he was enabled 10 make
voyage in a government vessel TO
Lisbon, where he succeeded in deter
, mining the longitude to within / de-
, gree 80 minutes.
. Fer this achievement he was grant
cd sum of $500 to enable him to
! proceed with his invention. After
! thirty years hard toll he produced
chronometer ON which the present
{ r,arine elronometer is based His in
vention was shaped like large watch,
, end n 1861 Harrison's son embarked
, Tenn in Gf.,-t tsPy- an
, ON the voyage out it was discovered
that the chronometer was only 81 Sec
: onds in error and during the whole
trip from Portsmouth to Jamaica and
back the variation was only minute
546 seconds.
The accuracy of the cIronometer
thus enabled the longitude to be de-
b termined within IS miles. a result
Z which exceeded the Admiralty's most
sanguine expectations. After further
demonstrations an act of Parliament
t was passed, in 1765 awarding Harrison
\ ea0.00o, half of the money to be paid
as soon as he explained how his time
: keeper was constructed and the re-
$ rnainder when the government was
/. Convinced that these timekeepers could
e be made by others Despite the fulfil
ments of these conditions Harrison
had to wait several wears before the
A money was turned over. asss ssss5s
Larcum Kendall, who had been Har-
risen's apprentice and who was ul-
timateiy his successor. followed on the
lines laid down by his master and
4 produced a ehronometer which was
used by Capt Cook during his daring
voyages in the Resolution. as
, OF this ohronometer Cook wrote
Our longitude can never be erro-
: neous While we have so good a guide
as Mr.. kendals watch" IL was not
2 until some twenty Years after Ira
falgar that the Admiralty considered
It duty to supply chronometers to
j ships CT the royal navy aslse
Various horologists have introduced
so many improvements that little
trace OF Harrison's model is to be dis
cerned in the modern chronometer
though to him must be assigned the
= credit of pojntin0 ont the Xay.-Lon-