TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 24 MARCH
On 24 Mar 1693, John Harrison was born, the English clockmaker who devoted most of his life to building more and more accurate marine chronometers. Obviously, the best pendulum clock on land would be worthless on a sailing vessel, constantly tossed by the sea. Yet it was only by knowing time accurately that the latitude of a ship’s location could be properly determined.
Just as in modern times, the invention of the GPS was a jaw-dropping advance for navigation, so in Harrison’s time, it was an accurate marine chronometer that was the holy grail.
Parliament offered a huge reward to the inventor who solved the inherent problems in chronometer design. (Those included, for example, temperature compensation.) Many others tried; all failed. Harrison's dogged determination through four decades finally paid off, with the refinement of his Longitude Watch.
This chapter, John Harrison and the Longitude Watch from John Timbs’ Stories of Inventors (1860) begins by answering the question you may have been thinking: so just how do you determine latitude with a clock?
On 24 Mar 1693, John Harrison was born, who created a marine chronometer capable of keeping time with such accuracy that navigators could reliably determine their longitude, even after many months at sea. Today's book pick is: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, by Dava Sobel (also known for her book Galileo's Daughter). Longitude was on the best-seller list eight weeks, and deservedly so. This highly-readable, engrossing book provides both a vibrant story of the pains of solving an important problem, and a biography of the man who solved it.
This fascinating piece of history can also be seen dramatized on these DVDs (which your Webmaster has seen and enthusiastically recommends):
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $9.50. Used from $0.24. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
Webmaster enthusiastically recommends a top notch dramatization available on DVD of the life and struggles of John Harrison, clock maker of the 18th century (played by Michael Gambon), seamlessly interwoven with the similarly intense exertion of Rupert Gould, a horologist restoring the neglected Harrison clock in the 20th century (played by Jeremy Irons). The history of the years of work that went into the original creation of such a device is spellbinding. The politics of the Admiralty interposed further nearly insurmountable obstacles builds tension as the story unfolds. The production values of this film are excellent, the research highly accurate, and the performances of the British actors are impeccable. Today's book pick is: Longitude, by ITV and A&E, based on the book by Dava Sobel. First aired as a TV mini-series, this docu-drama pays due homage to the genius of the inventor, and the passion of the restorer, both linked through centuries by the clock two centuries, and now both are presented to be known and remembered by the viewers.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $39.92. Used from $8.05. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
Here is another choice of videos on DVD about John Harrison’s epic effort to solve the problem of measuring longitude at sea in the 18th century. His story, as he toiled for decades, is told in a TV movie docu-drama aired as a Horizon episode on BBC TV in Britain, and also presented as a NOVA episode by WBGH on PBS in the U.S. Today's book pick is: NOVA: Lost at Sea - The Search for Longitude, by Patrick Malahide as John Harrison and narrated by Richard Dreyfuss.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $13.31. Used from $8.90. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator and name it after the IRS. — Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist (born 24 Mar 1945).  |
 | If a problem is clearly stated, it has no further interest to the physicist. — Peter Debye, Dutch-American physical chemist (born 24 Mar 1884). |
 | Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena. — Wilhelm Reich, Austrian psychologist (born 24 Mar 1897). |
| Before you look at today's web page, see if you can answer some of these questions about the events that happened on this day. Some of the names are very familiar. Others will likely stump you. Tickle your curiosity with these questions, then check your answers on today's web page. | |
| Births | |
 | Four Nobel Prize winners share 24 Mar as their birthday. Joseph H. Taylor (born 1941), John Cowdery Kendrew (1917), Adolf Butenandt (1903), and Peter Debye (1884). In different years, three won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and the fourth was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics. Which scientist won the Nobel Prize for Physics? |
 | Georgius Agricola, born 24 Mar 1494, was a German scholar and scientist known as “the father of mineralogy,” who made fundamental contributions to mining geology and metallurgy, mineralogy, structural geology, and paleontology. He was among the first to found a natural science upon observation. He may have coined the word “petroleum.” What is the meaning of the two Latin words that form the word “petroleum?” |
| Deaths | |
 | In 1849, a German chemist died, who remains noted for identifying “triads” of elements. He noticed a pattern among three elements with similar chemical properties, chlorine, bromine, and iodine—that the atomic weight of Br was the arithmetic mean of the atomic weights of Cl and I; and the properties of the three elements varied in an orderly manner, from Cl to Br to I. He found two other such triads—calcium, strontium, barium; and sulfur, selenium, tellurium. Can you name this chemist? |
| Events | |
 | On 24 Mar 1976, President Ford initiated a national program to give the entire U.S. population inoculations against a strain of influenza virus that experts had identified as a possible “killer flu.” It was first identified at Fort Dix, N.J., and concern that the virus could possibly be an emergency on the scale of the 1918 Spanish flu resulted in an unprecedented nationwide vaccination effort. By what name was this flu virus known? |
 | On Mar 24 of a certain year, the first U.S. seagoing oil drill rig (for drilling in over 100 feet of water) was placed in service by the U.S. company C.G. Glasscock Drilling Co. In which decade was this oil rig placed in service? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for March 23: V-2 ballistic missile • volcanic action • vanadium • the decade including the year 1982 • Gemini III, nicknamed the “Molly Brown”.
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