Simon Yeo talking about John Harrsion

JOHN HARRISON FOUNDATION

Today at the Rotary lunch time meeting the speaker was Simon Yeo assisted by Christina McGilligan-Fell.Simon gave an illustrated talk and also demonstrated his design for a commemorative piece,made largely out of oak laminate.

John Harrison (1693-1776) was a local man who made a vital contribution to travel,time and science by solving the longitude problem.The government in the 17^th century had issued a challenge to anybody who could devise a system to determine accurately longitude at sea.After many years of work Harrison devised a marine chronometer ( named H1,1730-1735) that underwent sea trials in 1736.It was very successful but Harrison carried out some adjustments.The time piece accurate and reliable.

Simon has designed and made a commemorative piece of which there will be 250.He gave some ideas of what will be included in this piece (including elements from Harrison