NavList:

I don't really see a contradiction  - the challenge of making a chronometer that works in the face of temperature variations and motion was extremely difficult and Harrison's work definitely qualifies for the term "genius".    

As a benchmark for how far ahead of his time he was, here's a clip from a journal where the author talks about how to use the equation of time to set watches from sundials  - it gives some flavor for the state of time-keeping in the late 18th century.

It is well known that common dials give what the English call apparent, and the foreign astronomers true time; which, on account of the unequal motion of the sun, is unequal:  the natural day being sometimes longer, and sometimes shorter, than the mean day, shewn by clocks and watches which go equably.   In order, therefore to find whether a clock or watch goes right, by a common sun-dial, or to set a clock or watch to mean time, when wrong, it is necessary to add to, or subtract from, the time shewn by the dial, a certain number of minutes and seconds, usually called “the Equation of time;” in order to find the time which the clock or watch ought to shew or to which it should be set[i].

 

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc
Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com
To , email NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---