Howells, Barraud & Jamison Marine Chronometer
date: label: date made
content: 1802
name: label: maker
content: Jamison, George
label: maker
content: Barraud, Paul Philip
label: maker
content: Howells, William
notes: label: Description
content: In the 18th century, inventing a practical way to determine time and place was so important to the security of seafaring imperial nations of Western Europe that a number of governments established lucrative prizes to inspire a solution.
label: Description
content: John Harrison received England's prize for inventing a timepiece accurate enough for determining longitude at sea. Harrison's timekeepers were ingenious, intricate and difficult to reproduce accurately and affordably. Nevertheless, they paved the way for the work of later inventor watchmakers, all of whom would help to revolutionize the maritime world by producing the timepieces that came to be known as marine chronometers.
label: Description
content: Thomas Mudge, one of the watchmakers following Harrison, designed this instrument. Like Harrison's timepieces, Mudge's were extremely inventive and complex. And like Harrison, Mudge won an English government prize he had a struggle to receive.
label: Description
content: Mudge's son, Thomas Mudge Jr., engaged a number of craftsmen to make copies of his father's work for public sale. The venture was a financial failure. The copies never accomplished the superior accuracy of the senior Mudge's own work, although their performance was adequate for maritime purposes.
label: Description
content: Of the twenty-six copies of his father's design commissioned by the younger Mudge, this one is number fourteen. It is the product of a collaboration of three craftsmen: William Howells of Kennington in southeast London, Paul Philip Barraud also of London and George Jamison of Portsea, a town adjacent to the naval base of Portsmouth on the southern English coast. Marks on the timekeeper's movement indicate they completed it in London in 1802.
label: Description
content: A plain wood box protects the instrument, which hangs in a framework of partial gimbals to keep it level on a rolling ship.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
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content: Time and Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.322384
label: accession number
content: 247659
label: catalog number
content: 322384
objectType: label: Object Name
content: box chronometer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: jewels (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: wooden box - from catalog card: 5 3/8 in x 6 1/4 in x 6 1/4 in; 13.6525 cm x 15.875 cm x 15.875 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/4 in x 6 3/4 in x 6 3/8 in; 13.335 cm x 17.145 cm x 16.1925 cm