navigation The marine chronometertechnology

Latitude could be determined by measuring the altitude of the Sun at noon or the altitude of any tabulated star when it crossed the local meridian, but the determination of longitude at sea remained a serious problem. By the Middle Ages, astronomers knew that the local time of an eclipse depended on the longitude, and in the 16th century they pointed out the principle of determining longitude by comparing the local time with the reading of a clock that reliably kept the time of a known meridian; because the Earth revolves 360° in 24 hours, or ¹/₄° every minute, it was possible to ascertain how far east or west a ship had traveled by comparing a marine timekeeper set to keep time with the location of the ship’s point of departure and the ship’s local time as measured by the Sun and stars. But no accurate marine timekeeper was then available. Even on dry land, the best 17th-century clocks were capable of keeping time to an accuracy of only one or two seconds over an interval of several days. Placed on board a ship, clocks became even more unreliable. After being subjected to bouncing waves, corrosive salt sprays, and unpredictable variations in temperature, pressure, and humidity, most shipboard clocks either stopped running or became too unstable to permit accurate navigation. Finally, in 1714, the British Board of Longitude offered a prize of £20,000 to anyone who could discover a method of finding the longitude within 30 miles during a sea voyage. After more than 40 years of disciplined labour, a barely educated British cabinetmaker named John Harrison won the prize by constructing the first practical marine chronometer, an oversized jeweled pocket watch that was nearly twice as accurate as the finest land-based clocks of his day. At last mariners had a way to determine both latitude and longitude. For decades thereafter the precise timing measurements obtained from marine chronometers, coupled with sextant sightings of the celestial bodies, allowed explorers to journey with dependable precision throughout the world.