As part of our research into John Harrison and the Longitude prize, 2B recently visited Greenwich Observatory.  The visit helped us to understand the context of Harrison’s amazing story, which we are committed to telling through the Barrow Market Place design project.
 

Bill and Liz at 0 degrees Longitude

John Harrison was a carpenter of no formal education, who solved the greatest problem of his day. He spent much of his life in Barrow-Upon-Humber. As well as taking an active role in the village, for example as choirmaster, he built his first clocks there, including the first famous marine chronometer, the H1 in 1835. Find out more at the village website, and the Royal Museums Greenwich website.

The current residents of Barrow wish to commemorate its famous son, and his important work, by celebrating Harrison and Longitude in our design for the new market place. 2B couldn't resist the opportunity to visit the Maritime Museum and see the clocks for ourselves.

Naturally, we had to get the T-shirts, which show the inner workings of Harrison’s wonderful ‘H4’ Chronometer.

H4 was the device which finally won Harrison the Longitude Prize, after a battle that lasted most of his life. Almost 60 years after the signing of the Longitude Act (the tercentenary of which is this year), Harrison was finally recognised as having solved the Longitude Problem in 1773.

H4 was the 4th and final of Harrison’s timepieces.  Unlike his larger, earlier designs, H4 succeeded in being both accurate enough to navigate by and portable enough to go anywhere – a worthy winner of the Longitude Prize, and a great legacy for John Harrison and Barrow-Upon-Humber.

By Amanda McDermott CMLI