|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| [HARRISON, John / MASKELYNE, Nevil]
|
| The principles of Mr Harrison's timekeeper, with plates of the same, published by order of the commissioners of longitude / Principes de la montre d M. Harrison, avec les planches relatives a la meme montre
|
| London: Richardson and Clark, 1767
|
| Avignon: Veuve Girard & Francois Sequin, 1767
|
| First edition thus.
|
| 4to, (34) ff, 7 plates, two title pages (one English, one French), English and French text on facing pages.
|
| Original wrappers, uncut.
|
|
|
|
|
This slender, fragile, and exceedingly rare pamphlet describes one of the greatest technological triumphs of all time - John Harrison's single-handed solution of the problem of finding longitude at sea.
|
|
|
|
In the 1720's, John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker, undertook to build a marine chronometer that would meet the longitude challenge. He worked on the problem for more than forty years, producing and demonstrating progressively more accurate clocks. Nevil Maskelyne, however, was not only pursuing his own astronomical solutions but was also on the British longitude commission administering the prize. He used this blatant conflict of interest to repeatedly obstruct Harrison's claims on the prize while he competed for it himself. Each time Harrison passed a required test to qualify for the prize, Maskelyne and the other commissioners challenged his results and set new standards. This went on for years until finally, in 1765, Harrison demonstrated a chronometer in tests that met every requirement and overcame every obstacle presented by Maskelyne and his cronies, who were then forced to (grudgingly) grant him his reward. However, he only got half of the prize up front. To get the second half, Harrison was required by Maskelyne to write and publish a detailed description of his chronometer so that it could be copied by others.
|
|
|
|
This pamphlet is Harrison's description. It was Maskelyne's intent that the illustrations would be done with such accuracy and completeness that another clockmaker could use them as blueprints to build a copy, but Harrison knew that the real secrets of his invention lay in details that couldn't be communicated by figure or text - they were the art of the inventor. So, the pamphlet failed in its purpose, but became a landmark of one of history's great works of technological genius.
|
