News

Durham astronomer secures Abbey memorial to key clockmaker

(28 March 2006)

An eminent Durham University professor has fulfilled a personal mission in securing a memorial in Westminster Abbey for John Harrison, the remarkable 18th century clockmaker who solved the problem of keeping time at sea.

Sir Arnold Wolfendale, Emeritus Professor in the Physics Department and the United Kingdom’s 14th Astronomer Royal (1991-95), led the tributes and commendations when the Duke of Edinburgh unveiled a memorial tablet on the 230th anniverary of Harrison's death which was also the 313th anniversary of his birth.

Sir Arnold has also edited a collection of essays about the work and influence of Yorkshire-born John 'Longitude' Harrison (1693-1776). Contributors include members of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, one of the 107 Livery Companies of the City of London, which organised the Abbey ceremony. The book also contains a piece by Dava Sobel, author of the award-winning book Longitude, which helped to bring Harrison and his achievements to the attention of the wider public in 1999 and was made into a television drama starring Michael Gambon; and Jet Lag, a poem about time by Durham-based poet Anne Stevenson.

Calculating longitude - the position east or west – depends on measuring differences in time from the Zero meridian in Greenwich. It was vital for maritime trade and military purposes, but normal clocks did not work at sea. In 1714 Parliament offered the vast prize of £20,000 for a method of accurately calculating longitude.

Sir Arnold explains: “Harrison was a village carpenter rather than a trained clockmaker, but he overcame unbelievable difficulties to produce a sea-going clock with which longitude could be determined at sea to much greater accuracy than hitherto.”

Harrison designed some magnificent clocks and watches which can be seen in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. In his Address at Westminster Abbey, Sir Arnold said of Harrison: "Not for him apprenticeship to a learned master-clockmaker, but hard slog, intuition and an inventive genius. The search for perfection was certainly a characteristic of John Harrison in his horological work and his brilliant success despite all his problems, both technical and human, fully entitle him to be remembered here, within sight of the tomb of another great man, Isaac Newton." The Harrison memorial, set into the floor of Abbey near the centre of the nave, is engraved with a meridian line marking exact north-south.

Sir Arnold has been a recipient of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' "Harrison Medal". He is also President of the Antiquarian Horological Society.