point that the device returned an error of only one second per month, while the
best chronographs available at that time lost more than a minute a day!
Suddenly, the measurement of time at sea became a simple thing, and sailing
the oceans became safer than it had ever been before. It is worth noting that the
carpenter was never declared the official winner of the contest, and while later on
the Parliament rewarded him monetarily, he was never truly able to enjoy his welldeserved success.
Nevertheless, the British quickly took advantage of Harrison’s invention. In
1772, Captain James Cook made use onboard his vessel, called Resolution, one of
Harrison’s clocks for his historic second journey to Australia and New Zealand.
The official historiography describes Captain Cook’s three travels to the southern
hemisphere as adventures akin to a modern Indiana Jones. In reality, they were
military and scientific expeditions with precise objectives, one being to test
Harrison’s clock.
The Royal Society commissioned Cook to embark on the first trip to Tahiti
while leading a group of astronomers that would observe the transit of Venus.
6
The
expedition was part of a globally coordinated research mission that would allow
scientists to calculate the exact distance of the planet from the Sun and update
their star maps. In addition, the Royal Society sent anthropologists, botanists,
geographers and zoologists to study the new lands and discover their potential
natural resources. And since the ships were all property of the British Royal Navy,
a large platoon of armed soldiers took part in the expedition. Much of the information gathered during Cook’s travels convinced the British government to colonize
the fertile territories of Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. The British settlement, called the Commonwealth, lasted a hundred years, during which the local
Aboriginal populations were almost completely wiped out. Had it not been possible for the safe navigation of the seas enabled by the invention of Harrison’s
clock, perhaps the history of the Commonwealth would have been very different.
From the end of the eighteenth century onward, the British and French fleets –
the only two nations that by that time had successfully developed marine chronographs
7
– dominated the scene for the next 200 years. Control of time provided
supremacy at sea, and every place on the planet became reachable.
6
The planet Venus passes at regular intervals at an equal distance between the Sun and the
Earth; the duration of the transit varies according to the observation site on our planet due to
the angular differences of the observers. By observing the transit in different known sites,
astronomers could calculate the exact distance of the Earth from the Sun with trigonometric
formulas. In 1761, a first transit occurred, and the international scientific community sent expeditions to Siberia, North America, Madagascar and South Africa. For the 1769 event, observation sites in Canada, California and Tahiti were also added.
7
Thanks to a bequest from the magistrate Rouillé de Meslay, the French Academy of Sciences
announced a prize for making a marine clock in 1714, just before the English Parliament. In
1760, two competing clockmakers, Pierre LeRoy and Ferdinand Berthoud, presented two different marine chronometers, which were successfully tested at sea in 1769 and 1771.
GPS: The Stellar Clock 53
best chronographs available at that time lost more than a minute a day!
Suddenly, the measurement of time at sea became a simple thing, and sailing
the oceans became safer than it had ever been before. It is worth noting that the
carpenter was never declared the official winner of the contest, and while later on
the Parliament rewarded him monetarily, he was never truly able to enjoy his welldeserved success.
Nevertheless, the British quickly took advantage of Harrison’s invention. In
1772, Captain James Cook made use onboard his vessel, called Resolution, one of
Harrison’s clocks for his historic second journey to Australia and New Zealand.
The official historiography describes Captain Cook’s three travels to the southern
hemisphere as adventures akin to a modern Indiana Jones. In reality, they were
military and scientific expeditions with precise objectives, one being to test
Harrison’s clock.
The Royal Society commissioned Cook to embark on the first trip to Tahiti
while leading a group of astronomers that would observe the transit of Venus.
6
The
expedition was part of a globally coordinated research mission that would allow
scientists to calculate the exact distance of the planet from the Sun and update
their star maps. In addition, the Royal Society sent anthropologists, botanists,
geographers and zoologists to study the new lands and discover their potential
natural resources. And since the ships were all property of the British Royal Navy,
a large platoon of armed soldiers took part in the expedition. Much of the information gathered during Cook’s travels convinced the British government to colonize
the fertile territories of Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. The British settlement, called the Commonwealth, lasted a hundred years, during which the local
Aboriginal populations were almost completely wiped out. Had it not been possible for the safe navigation of the seas enabled by the invention of Harrison’s
clock, perhaps the history of the Commonwealth would have been very different.
From the end of the eighteenth century onward, the British and French fleets –
the only two nations that by that time had successfully developed marine chronographs
7
– dominated the scene for the next 200 years. Control of time provided
supremacy at sea, and every place on the planet became reachable.
6
The planet Venus passes at regular intervals at an equal distance between the Sun and the
Earth; the duration of the transit varies according to the observation site on our planet due to
the angular differences of the observers. By observing the transit in different known sites,
astronomers could calculate the exact distance of the Earth from the Sun with trigonometric
formulas. In 1761, a first transit occurred, and the international scientific community sent expeditions to Siberia, North America, Madagascar and South Africa. For the 1769 event, observation sites in Canada, California and Tahiti were also added.
7
Thanks to a bequest from the magistrate Rouillé de Meslay, the French Academy of Sciences
announced a prize for making a marine clock in 1714, just before the English Parliament. In
1760, two competing clockmakers, Pierre LeRoy and Ferdinand Berthoud, presented two different marine chronometers, which were successfully tested at sea in 1769 and 1771.
GPS: The Stellar Clock 53