By 1714 the inability to measure longitude accurately at sea had
led to the tragic loss of hundreds of trading ships, and thousands
of lives. Pressure from merchants and seamen finally drove the
government to form the Board of Longitude, and a prize of 20,000
was offered for a successful solution. Although scientists such as
Sir Isaac Newton knew that a clock would solve the problem of
identifying longitude, it was generally considered impossible to
build one that would withstand the motion of a ship or the extremes
of temperature in foreign climes. Only Harrison, an uneducated
carpenter from Lincolnshire, dared to pit his genius against the
establishment belief that the answer lay in the stars, pursuing the
realisation of his invention against years of scepticism."
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