Harrison Decoded Towards a Perfect Pendulum Clock
- Submitting institution
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Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32Z_OP_B1003
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Blackwells
- ISBN
- 978-0-19-881681-2
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The researcher devised, co-edited and contributed a chapter and appendix to <Harrison Decoded: towards a perfect pendulum clock>, a volume of ten essays exploring the history of precision pendulum clock-making. It does this by examining a unique method of precision-clock making described by clockmaker John Harrison (1793-76) in a pamphlet published in 1775.
This collection of essays brings together the results of an extended collaborative research project that unpicked, and put into practice, the fine details of John Harrison's extraordinary pendulum clock system. It is authored by subject specialists, makers and researchers, who collaboratively studied surviving manuscript sources and artefacts, and worked together to construct a clock that followed the perceived theory. The clock, known simply as ‘Clock B’ was completed in 2012 and installed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, where it was subjected to fine adjustment, tested under rigorous conditions and monitored by peers and experts.
The book describes the making, adjusting, and testing of ‘Clock B’ and this is accompanied by scientific analysis of the clock system and its performance. The methods of data-gathering, from experiments performed at Greenwich 2012-15, are also presented. This includes the procedures for capturing data on the clock’s performance under changes in atmospheric conditions, along with an in-depth analysis of both the performance of the clock under peer-reviewed trials, and the physical dynamics of the clock system that make compensation possible. In addition, historical perspectives on Harrison's clockmaking are contextualised against that of his contemporaries and evaluated the possible influences of early eighteenth-century scientific thought on the design of the clock are also considered. The exacting research and meticulously gathered data presented in this book provides an indispensable point of reference in the field of fine clock design.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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