I live quite near to the village of Nostell where that wonderful clock maker John Harrison was borne. The National Trust house Nostell Priory, next to that village, has one of his timepieces on display.
https://i.imgur.com/EQ2by8I.jpg
This is one of the few of his very early pieces still in existence. It is interesting as it's movement is made almost entirely of wood, each cog in the movement being hand carved by the master himself
https://i.imgur.com/r8F1qYQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xbR5u6X.jpg
And the dial, made of brass, is beautiful. It also has a date window at 6 o-clock, not bad for a wooden movement 300 years old which still works. And John Harrison hand signed and dated the movement on the date wheel.
https://i.imgur.com/6q3ymZA.jpg
The son of a carpenter, John chose wood because of it's resistance to expansion and contraction due to temperature fluctuations, and went on to solve the Longitude problem of being able to tell the time accurately at sea thus significantly aiding navigation. Though his collecting of the reward that was offered for doing so took a very long time indeed. Dava Sobel's book 'Longitude', which covers the subject in great detail, is well worth finding and reading.
The clock as shown in the snapshots above has been removed from it's normal carved wooden case and displayed in a glass cabinet so that all the details of the movement can be seen - pity my snapshots didn't work so well through the glass. However, there's a great YouTube video showing the clock in operation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-4BzNwYmmA
I understand that the National Trust are proposing to make a working replica of John's original and keeping the existing clock as-is to preserve it's originality - they must have a WIS working in their midst :eagerness:
If you're ever in the Doncaster/Wakefield area it's well worth a visit to Nostell Priory to see this wonderful piece of history.
