John Harrison was a self-educated English carpenter and clock maker who invented a marine chronometer,a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea.His solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel.
The problem he solved was considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament offered financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £2.89 million today) under the 1714 Longitude Act.Harrison came 39th in the BBC’s 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
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