The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

JOHN HARRISON

John Harrison was a British clock maker. He was born in 1693 at Foulby, Yorkshire and died in 1776. The son of a carpenter, he taught himself the elements of mechanics and in 1715 he produced an eight-day clock which struck the hour, and indicated the day of the month. This clock had all wooden wheels apart from the escapement. He invented a method of compensation which enabled timepieces to be used on ships to determine longitude, compensating for the variations in the rate of the timepiece caused by temperature variations.
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