[Men of Invention and Industry by Samuel Smiles]@TWC D-Link bookMen of Invention and Industry CHAPTER III 28/55
He invented a curious monochord, which was not less accurate than his clocks in the mensuration of time.
His ear was distressed by the ringing of bells out of tune, and he set himself to remedy them.
At the parish church of Hull, for instance, the bells were harsh and disagreeable, and by the authority of the vicar and churchwardens he was allowed to put them into a state of exact tune, so that they proved entirely melodious. But the great work of his life was his marine chronometer.
He found it necessary, in the first place, to alter the first mover of his clock to a spring wound up, so that the regularity of the motion might be derived from the vibrations of balances, instead of those of a pendulum as in a standing clock.
Mr.Folkes, President of the Royal Society, when presenting the gold medal to Harrison in 1749, thus describes the arrangement of his new machine.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|