have instructed workmen in its principles and execution, which I
should have been glad of an opportunity of doing. But how widely

different this is from what is now proposed, viz., for me to
instruct people that I know nothing of, and such as may know

nothing of mechanics; and, if I do not make them understand to
their satisfaction, I may then have nothing!

"Hard fate indeed to me, but still harder to the world, which may
be deprived of this my invention, which must be the case, except

by my open and free manner in describing all the principles of it
to gentlemen and noblemen who almost at all times have had free

recourse to my instruments. And if any of these workmen have
been so ingenious as to have got my invention, how far you may

please to reward them for their piracy must be left for you to
determine; and I must set myself down in old age, and thank God I

can be more easy in that I have the conquest, and though I have
no reward, than if I had come short of the matter and by some

delusion had the reward!"
The Right Honourable the Earl of Egmont was in the chair of the

Board of Longitude on the day when this letter was read--June 13,
1765. The Commissioners were somewhat startled by the tone which

the inventor had taken. Indeed, they were rather angry. Mr.
Harrison, who was in waiting, was called in. After some rather

hot speaking, and after a proposal was made to Harrison which he
said he would decline to accede to "so long as a drop of English

blood remained in his body," he left the room. Matters were at
length arranged. The Act of Parliament (5 Geo. III. cap. 20)

awarded him, upon a full discovery of the principles of his
time-keeper, the payment of such a sum, as with the 2500L. he had

already received, would make one half of the reward; and the
remaining half was to be paid when other chronometers had been

made after his design, and their capabilities fully proved. He
was also required to assign his four chronometers--one of which

was styled a watch--to the use of the public.
Harrison at once proceeded to give full explanations of the

principles of his chronometer to Dr. Maskelyne, and six other
gentlemen, who had been appointed to receive them. He took his

timekeeper to pieces in their presence, and deposited in their
hands correct drawings of the same, with the parts, so that other

skilful makers might construct similar chronometers on the same
principles. Indeed, there was no difficulty in making them;

after his explanations and drawings had been published. An exact
copy of his last watch was made by the ingenious Mr. Kendal; and

was used by Captain Cook in his three years' circumnavigation of
the world, to his perfect satisfaction.

England had already inaugurated that series of scientific
expeditions which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to

raise her naval reputation to so great a height. In these
expeditions, the officers, the sailors, and the scientific men,

were constantly brought face to face with unforeseen difficulties
and dangers, which brought forth their highest qualities as men.

There was, however, some intermixture of narrowness in the minds
of those who sent them forth. For instance, while Dr. Priestley

was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to join Captain
Cook's second expedition to the Southern Seas, as an astronomer.

Priestley gave his assent, and made arrangements to set out. But
some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment had

been cancelled, as the Board of Longitude objected to his
theology. Priestley's otherwise gentle nature was roused. "What

I am, and what they are, in respect of religion," he wrote to
Banks, in December, 1771, "might easily have been known before

the thing was proposed to me at all. Besides, I thought that
this had been a business of philosophy, and not of divinity. If,

however, this be the case, I shall hold the Board of Longitude in
extreme contempt."

Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the Resolution, and
Captain Wallis to the command of the Adventure, in November,

1771. They proceeded to equip the ships; and amongst the other
instruments taken on board Captain Cook's ship, were two

timekeepers, one made by Mr. Larcum Kendal, on Mr. Harrison's
principles, and the other by Mr. John Arnold, on his own. The

expedition left Deptford in April, 1772; and shortly afterwards
sailed for the South Seas. "Mr. Kendal's watch" is the subject

of frequent notices in Captain Cook's account. At the Cape of
Good Hope, it is said to have "answered beyond all expectation."

Further south, in the neighbourhood of Cape Circumcision, he
says, "the use of the telescope is found difficult at first, but

a little practice will make it familiar. By the assistance of
the watch we shall be able to discover the greatest error this

method of observing the longitude at sea is liable to." It was
found that Harrison's watch was more correct than Arnold's, and

when near Cape Palliser in New Zealand, Cook says, "this day at
noon, when we attended the winding-up of the watches, the fusee

of Mr. Arnold's would not turn round, so that after several
unsuccessful trials we were obliged to let it go down." From

this time, complete reliance was placed upon Harrison's
chronometer. Some time later, Cook says, "I must here take

notice that our longitude can never be erroneous while we have so
good a guide as Mr. Kendal's watch." It may be observed, that at

the beginning of the voyage, observations were made by the lunar
tables; but these, being found unreliable, were eventually

discontinued.
To return to Harrison. He continued to be worried by official

opposition. His claims were still unsatisfied. His watch at
home underwent many more trials. Dr. Maskelyne, the Royal

Astronomer, was charged with being unfavourable to the success of
chronometers, being deeply interested in finding the longitude by

lunar tables; although this method is now almost entirely
superseded by the chronometer. Harrison accordingly could not

get the certificate of what was due to him under the Act of
Parliament. Years passed before he could obtain the remaining

amount of his reward. It was not until the year 1773, or
forty-five years after the commencement of his experiments, that

he succeeded in obtaining it. The following is an entry in the
list of supplies granted by Parliament in that year: "June 14.

To John Harrison, as a further reward and encouragement over and
above the sums already received by him, for his invention of a

timekeeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea, and his
discovery of the principles upon which the same was constructed,

8570 pounds 0s. 0d.
John Harrison did not long survive the settlement of his claims;

for he died on the 24th of March, 1776, at the age of
eighty-three. He was buried at the south-west corner of

Hampstead parishchurchyard, where a tombstone was erected to his
memory, and an inscription placed upon it commemorating his

services. His wife survived him only a year; she died at
seventy-two, and was buried in the same tomb. His son, William

Harrison, F.R.S., a deputy-lientenant of the counties of Monmouth
and Middlesex, died in 1815, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and

was also interred there. The tomb having stood for more than a
century, became somewhat dilapidated; when the Clock-makers'

Company of the City of London took steps in 1879 to reconstruct
it, and recut the inscriptions. An appropriateceremony took

place at the final uncovering of the tomb.
But perhaps the most interesting works connected with John

Harrison and the great labour of his life, are the wooden clock
at the South Kensington Museum, and the four chronometers made by

him for the Government, which are still preserved at the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich. The three early ones are of great