Leeds Museum and John Harrison's Clock

[Leeds Hippo]

Came across an interesting note that mentions that Leeds Museum has in it's possession a clock made by the famous clock maker John Harrison. (I think we all recall the episode of Only Fools and Horses where the brothers make their fortune by selling the John Harrison clock)quoteBetween 1725 and 1728 John and his brother James, also a skilled joiner, made at least three precision pendulum-clocks, again with oak and lignum vitae movements and longcase. The grid-iron pendulum was developed during this phase. These precision pendulum-clocks are thought by some to have been the most accurate clocks in the world at the time, and significantly are the direct link to the sea clocks. No.1, now in a private collection was in the collections of the Time Museum, USA, until that museum closed in 2000 and its collection dispersed at auction in 2004. No. 2 is in the collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It is not on display but it is planned to put it on permanent display in the new Leeds City Museum some time in 2011. No. 3 is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' collection.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harri ... egoryID=40    

[liits]

A wooden Harrison clock would be a thing worth seeing. I’ll never understand why the Royal Observatory can never manage to have all of their Harrison clocks on display at the same time. He’s buried in the churchyard just up the road from me and he must be an inspiration to lots of people [as well as me] as his grave is much visited.For an entertaining insight into his endeavour to get the clocks to work accurately and have them accepted, watch the film Longitude.

[Richard A Thackeray]

I thought I had a picture of his childhood home, as it's not too far from me (as 'the Crow flies) at Foulby (on the main A638 Wakefield-Doncaster turnpike road)I pass it several days a week, & there's a Blue Plaque on the wallNostell Priory estate, where his father worked, has one of his clocks in the House(as well as the largest collection of Chippendale furniture in the UK... 100+ pieces!)http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w- ... lpriory/My wife has an office on the estate, & I'm still waiting for my 'promised' offer of a look at the medieval Tithe Barn they have, & the 'undercroft'/basement of the house itself that the Estate Manager said he'd arrange for me

[Leeds Hippo]

It's hard to overstate the importance of the guy's work as pointed out by Neil Armstrong. As an empire that grew on trade, accurate navigation was a keystone of our prosperity. The clock was a direct link to his later chronometers

[liits]

I’m normally a bit dubious about posting links [as they never seem to work] but I think this one is worth-while trying.Out of the blue, I had an email from Ian Fraser, a conservator at the Leeds Museums and Galleries. It reads “Hello, read the Secret Leeds forum, would like to register to upload stuff, but for some technical problem I cannot register. I was wondering if you could upload this link for me? I look after the Harrison clock at Leeds, and wrote the content for AHOW website, and the entries for the Secret Lives of Objects blog; there are a lot of categories, but the link below will take you directly to the History of Science category.”Some great photos on the link to this particular page and, having had a quick scan through some of the other pages, quite a few hours of reading!http://secretlivesofobjects.blogspot.co ... %20Science    

[Brunel]

Great link.Lots to read and study.