Guardians of Time (Part IV: Harrison for All Times)

As the most powerful naval force, the British have promised £ 20,000, then a large sum of money, to the one who makes a clock whose accuracy for a month of traveling by sea will not deviate more than two minutes. The idea emerged spontaneously, after the crash of their four ships that were wrecked near the home port of Isles of Scilly on 29th of September 1707 when 2000 sailors were killed. It turns out that the cause of the accident was that they did not know the exact longitude for which determination was necessary perfectly accurate clock.

Despite the large amount and effort of many talented craftsmen to reach the prize, it was deserved only in 1761 by a famous London clockmaker John Harrison. His clock "Timekeeper" measured time during a voyage of ship "Deptford" to Jamaica and back and in 161 days of sailing it was delayed only 5 seconds. Prior to this, Harrison has introduced a multitude of improvements, novelties and totally new inventions. However, he received the award just before the end of his life, through the mediation of King George III in Parliament. This clock is now kept at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (London), and the first confirmation of its value, was experienced during the journey of James Hook, when a great sailor, looking for Terra Australis Incognita (Unknown Southern Land), sailed around the earth at the southernmost latitude possible. After 112,000 kilometers, of four verified clocks only Harrison’s chronometer proved really reliable.

The greatest, but also and rare, recognition, the London clockmaker and his invention received after more than two centuries. After a successful first landing on the moon, on July 21,1969, the crew of the spaceship Apollo 11 set off on a tour during which she was in London, where the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson hosted a reception. Contrary to custom, to toast the host, scientists or designers, Neil Armstrong, the man who first stepped onto the surface of our first celestial neighbor, toasted just to John Harrison, whose epochal work, accurate timing and navigation, gave a significant impetus to the exploration of the universe.

To return to Guardians of Time (Part I: The Time Has Come), click HERE.

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Guardians of Time (Part III: Life to Silkworms)

Development of mechanisms, "guardians of time", as they have always been calling the clocks, coincides with the rapid development of the middle class, trade expanding, great journeys and discovering of new countries. Insatiable hunger for something new seems to have encouraged even science toward greater accuracy. Because, it was important to plan well, predict details, the exact time of arrival and return, and, on long journeys, along with the astrolabe (then an important astronomical device to measure the height of the sun and stars) and calendar, it was frequently and the only reliable friend who, if fails, is leaving passengers in the lurch.

It was not, for example, irrelevant when to go to China for the silkworm litters, and whether your good planning is going to bring you home at the right time or the eggs will hatch on the way, in the middle of some desert.

It is known that Columbus used all three types of clocks that existed in his time and that he often checked their values using the sand clock as their unit of measurement. And how much accuracy meant in those times, perhaps best testifies the big prize that UK government announced in 1714, which much contributed to the faster development of the clock.

To return to Guardians of Time (Part I: The Time Has Come), click HERE.

To read Guardians of Time (Part IV: Harrison for All Times), click HERE.

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Guardians of Time (Part II: Stomach More Accurate Than All)

Attempts to tame the time, that is, to master its transience, are old as civilization. It is not known who and when invented the first gnomon - public sundial - but it is known that his smaller namesake was used until the end of the 18th century as a measure of accuracy of already present mechanical clocks. If you had then a mechanism for measuring time, you also had and a sundial (to avoid larger deviations).

When people started to measure time, a lament of the Roman comedy writer Plutarch (250-184 BC) was recorded:

"The gods should have killed the one who first invented the clock and set the sundial, which, to me, a poor man, is breaking the day into pieces. Before my stomach was my clock, the best and most accurate of all. It always called me to eat, even when there was nothing to eat, but now, though, we do not eat even if we have something to eat, if the sun is not right."

Of course, people continued to search for a device that will accurately measure, or mark, the passage of time. Besides the help of sun's rays, the water flowed, forming clepsydra which scaled time with a constant and regular flow of water through a small opening. Then, somewhere, and sand intervened, and so the sand clocks, even in some places today, marked leaking of time, which was eventually reined with bells calling and informing people in the certain hour about what is going on or what follows. Then came a pendulum, that was boring, but it was a tested measure of time. Its ability was first uncovered by Galileo (1564-1642), then Huyghens (1629-1695), but Foucault eventually with his pendulum, in the middle of 19th century, put a lot of things into place.

More and more successfully,  people competed in the taming of what "goes, lasts, passes, flows, flies, is never at rest or standing,  and all that was, is and will be…”


To return to Guardians of Time (Part I: The Time Has Come), click HERE.

To read Guardians of Time (Part III: Life to Silkworms), click HERE.

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Guardians of Time (Part I: The Time Has Come)

The man first began to tame time with a cane and rope, but then he realized that he needed more accurate devices that, on the other hand, needed to be equipped properly – and so the clockmakers became very important people.

Few people in "the old times" could have been measured with clockmakers. They were, then, so prominent that a place was given to them along with the ruler himself who - believe it or not - allowed them to work, when and how much, they wanted. Their craft was valued not only as the supreme art, but also because rulers of old times liked to have them close, in sight, because they were those who have ruled the art of taming time. And the rulers have always had an urge to keep everything under their cloak, so why not even the time.

However, until the beginning of the second half of the 16th century, clockmakers were, some would say undeservedly, named only as machinists, or, maybe they were deliberately named like this due to the fact that their skills implied some kind of turnkey of time. In the summer of 1565 the first clock guild association was formalized and it received new members strictly by the book. Within a year, a candidate had to produce two clocks. One was supposed to be a table clock, with the repetition on each quarter, with a scale of 24 hours on the first dial, while on the second a the scale was supposed to be set for a quarter hours and with moon phase indicators, and on the other side, the annual calendar and day lengths. So, in a way, it was almost a device that comprehensively recorded the passage of time. The second clock that was supposed to be made on this, for the future clockmaker, key year,  had to be pendent-like (one that is worn around the neck), and it had to had an alarm that came out on every hour. The owners, of course, took off this kind of clock, at bedtime, but also in other (similar) situations.

After all, clocks have been for a long time a matter of prestige, a nice part of room decoration, but also an important ornament when going out among other people. Until recently, "watching at a clock" was a real little ritual that could have lasted even ten minutes, while slowly opening the boxes, one by one, listening, showing it to the environment and, ultimately, unquestionably stating what time is it. And if the clock had the suitable, often overemphasized, chain, the owner of the clock reflected a unique impression of its importance.

To read Guardians of Time (Part II: Stomach More Accurate Than All), click HERE.

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