John harrison biography
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John Harrison – Biography
John Harrison's latest book, A Journey to the End of Time, is published this month. In celebration, John is our Author of the Month for August
John will be participating in a series of talks promoting and the book will be appearing at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Penarth Book Festival, and PENfro Book Festival. Tickets for John's appearance at the Edinburgh Festival are available now, as are tickets for his talk on Travel Writing at PENfro Book Festival. Watch Penarth Book Festival's Twitter for details on that event.
A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and member of the British Guild of Travel Writers (as well as winner of its Best Narrative Award ), John is a writer and adventurer; descended from a line of aviators and seafarers, he studied geography at Cambridge and worked on environmental policy for various government agencies while teaching himself to write. His first travel book, Where the Earth Ends, was a Sunday Times book of the week. He also won the inaugural Alexander Cordell Travel Writing Competition in , and won it again in He won Arts Council Bursaries in and , and was a winner of one of the prestigious Academi/AHRB Bursaries in for a project on The Wild Wood.
When not writing, he guides and dr
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Who was John Harrison?
John Harrison was a carpenter by trade who was self-taught in clock making. During the mids he designed a series of remarkable precision longcase clocks. These clocks achieved an accuracy of one second in a month, far better than any clocks of the time.
In order to solve the problem of Longitude, Harrison aimed to devise a portable clock which kept time to within three seconds a day. This would make it far more accurate than even the best watches of the time.
John Harrison arrived in London, looking for both support and the rewards promised by the Longitude Act.
What was the Longitude Act?
The Longitude Act was an act of parliament that offered money in return for the solution to the problem of finding a ship's precise longitude at sea.
Find out more about Longitude
Harrison began his time working in London with Edmond Halley, second Astronomer Royal and a Commissioner of Longitude. He was receivedwarmly at Greenwich, but Halley felt unable to judge his work. Instead, he sent him to clockmaker George Graham.
John Harrison's first attempt – H1
For the next few years Harrison worked in Barrow upon Humber on a marine timekeeper, now known as H1. He was most likely helped by his brother, Ja
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Scientist of rendering Day - John Harrison
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