John Harrison, the Carpenter Whose Sea Watch Solved Longitude and Who Had to Fight Twenty Years to Be Paid
John Harrison, a self-taught Yorkshire carpenter, spent his life building clocks accurate enough to carry longitude to sea. His 1759 watch H4 lost only seconds on a transatlantic trial — meeting the £20,000 Longitude Prize's terms — but the Board of Longitude paid in grudging halves until King George III himself intervened. A copy of H4 guided Captain Cook.
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