(07-07-2018, 01:09 AM)LouisC Wrote: Joe,
Excellent video.
I've often wondered if it crossed his mind to start making chronometers by mass production (if possible) and then selling them to mariners?
He could've sold the chronometers based on their own value alone.
Lou
It took Harrison over 50 years to make and test 4 clocks - the average merchant marine could never hope to afford one.... Even today I could hardly afford to buy a sextant, let alone a nice ship's chronometer. Government funding supported his timepiece efforts; the family business fed his family. Then again Harrison was very secretive about his workings for fear of theft. The British government wanted the question of longitude solves to protect naval ships first and commercial ships second.
My question is, where is all the modern technology contemporary governments have acquired (stolen)? Energy, transportation, electronic, generation, anti-gravity, economy, optical, chemical patents...etc that produced for the masses might have improved our lives in general at reasonable expense.
joe