History of Oceanography: Voyages of Exploration and Science

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H1 was built between 1730 - 1735 by John Harrison and is essentially, a portable version of Harrison’s precision wooden clocks. It is spring-driven and only runs for one day (the wooden clocks run for eight days). All of the moving parts are counterbalanced and controlled by springs so that, unlike a pendulum clock, H1 is independent of the direction of gravity. The linked balance mechanism also ensures that any change in motion which affects one of the balances is compensated for by the same effect on the other balance.

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