Brief History of my interest in
clocks
In 1982, during my honeymoon in
Cape Cod, my newlywed wife and I
visited a museum store and we found a beautiful wooden clock.
This particular clock was exquisitely constructed entirely of American
Walnut. The impression that clock made on me has lasted 25 years,
the length of my tour of duty with the US Navy.
Every naval officer worth his
salt has perfected the art of ship handling and navigation. The
essential skills necessary to safely navigate a ship have not changed
much since large vessels began crossing the oceans. However, the tools
of the trade have changed radically. Today, GPS makes life easy for the
navigator and we seldom hear about ships grounding in shallow waters.
GPS is a relatively recent technology that allows the navigator to
continuously monitor the ship's track.
There was a time when a ship's
navigator could only estimate his position. This estimate was based
upon dead reckoning navigation which depended on crude estimates of
time and distance to determine
the ship's position in latitude and
longitude. During the 18th century, the world's premier naval
power, Britain, was concerned over the loss of ships at sea and set out
to solve the main problem of navigation, Longitude. The British
government authorized a 20,000 pound reward for solving the Longitude
problem (follow the link to read about Longitude, or goto this
superb (short) YouTube
documentary.).
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In 1776, John Harrison was declared the winner after designing and building the first timepiece that could operate at sea on a pitching and rolling deck. The Harrison clocks, H1 through H4, are on display at the Greenwich Observatory in London. The H1 clock is nearly all wooden. Considering the history of clocks, these Harrison clocks are phenomenal technical accomplishments.
During my London naval assignment,
I made
it my duty to visit the Greenwich Observatory and see the Harrison
clocks. That visit was my inspiration to commit to building my
wooden clock.