A Brief Account of the Chronometer: With Remarks on Those Furnished by Parkinson and Frodsham to the Expeditions of Captains Ross, Parry, Sabine, King, Lyon, Foster and Other Distinguished Navigators : with the Rate of Others Tried at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the Years 1828-29-30-31M.A. Pittman, 1832 - 24 pages |
Common terms and phrases
accuracy adjudged the prize admirably Admiralty Appendix Astronomer AVERAGE DAILY RATE Baffin's Bay Board of Admiralty Board of Longitude Cape Horn Captain Foster Captain King Captain Lyon Captain Parry Captain Ross Captain Sabine Change Alley CHEYNE Chro Chrono Chronometers on board circumstances command comparative trial Cornhill correct dated Deptford determining the longitude England equal expedition Extract four Chronometers FRODSHAM'S Chronometers furnished GENTLEMEN-I going Greenwich Griper Hecla HENRY FRODSHAM improvement inclose inform Messrs instrument JOHN CLARKSON junior branches late voyage latitudes lent Letter from Captain Letter from Lieutenant liberal Lieutenant Kendall Lieutenant Parry Liverpool makers March marine watch Melville Island months observations Packet Ship PARKINSON and FROD PARKINSON and FRODSHAM Parry's Pendulum Experiments performed pleasure Pocket Watch preserved their rates Public Trial purchased purpose R.N. to Messrs rates of Chronometers remarkable Repulse Bay Royal Observatory sailed satisfaction shewn testimony Thermometer throughout the voyage tion vessel
Popular passages
Page 17 - ... irregularity may arise, I must regard its occurrence as an evidence of the inferiority of the peculiar chronometer to the advanced state to which the art of their construction has attained; because, among the many with which I have at different times been furnished by Messrs. Parkinson and Frodsham...
Page 17 - No such variation. 15 however, can be found in the going of No. 423, in any one of the six voyages in which it was embarked between April and November, which alternated with nearly equal periods on land, when it was employed incessantly in observations, including those of magnetism." • • * * * In a note on this passage, Captain Sabine says, " An opinion has lately prevailed that the change in the rate of Chronometers on embarkation which used to be considered as a consequence of the motion of...
Page 18 - The chronometers were kept on board the whole winter, and their rates, preparatory to the polar navigation of the following summer, were assigned from the average of the four months immediately preceding her extrication from the ice, at an equal period of four months of navigation. The Hecla arrived at Leith, having experienced much bad weather in crossing the Atlantic, but, on comparing the four chronometers at the Observatory at Leith, their Greenwich time, employing the winter harbour rates, proved...
Page 17 - I believe, on the authority of others, rather than from my own observation, that a difference lias sometimes, and even frequently, taken place between the land and sea rates of Chronometers ; but, from whatever cause the irregularity may arise, I must regard its occurrence as an evidence of the inferiority of the peculiar Chronometer to the advanced state to which the art of their construction has attained: because, among the many with which I have at different times been furnished by Messrs.
Page 17 - ... circumstances for its exhibition, than took place in the four chronometers of Messrs. Parkinson and Frodsham, of which I have given an account in the appendix to Captain Parry's Voyage of Discovery in 1819 and 1820, pages 7, 12, 18, 19, and 20." Having succinctly mentioned the result, Captain S. adds, " These particulars are stated in detail in the pages referred to, but the circumstance is thus again generally noticed, because it appears to have been overlooked by many whose ingenuity has been...
Page 16 - ... Africa, &c. and Spitzbergen, for making Pendulum Experiments — as published (by authority of the Board of Longitude) in his Narrative of those Scientific Expeditions. " It would be impossible to express the advantage of which Messrs. PARKINSON and FRODSHAM'S Chronometers proved to me on all occasions, or how much the thorough reliance which I could place on their time facilitated, or, what is more important, how much it conduced to the accuracy of the variety of observations which successively...
Page 17 - ... frequently transferred from the ship to the shore, for two or three weeks at a time, for the purpose of trial, I have never been able to discover any systematic variations whatever consequent on their removal. With regard to the influence of the iron as a cause of the irregularity, a more decisive evidence of its not being practically discovered under the most favorable circumstances for its exhibition can scarcely be imagined, than took place in the four Chronometers of Messrs. PARKINSON and...
Page 7 - ... for working the lunar observations ; but, in order to shorten and simplify these laborious operations, other tables and calculations were still wanted, which he afterwards supplied by his "Nautical Almanack," and " Requisite Tables." In 1763 he undertook another scientific voyage by appointment of the lords of the admiralty and the board of longitude. He sailed for Barbadoes for the following purposes : to find the longitude of that island by astronomical observations; to determine the rate of...
Page 18 - Leith, having experienced much bad weather in crossing the Atlantic: but on comparing the four Chronometers at the Observatory at Leith, their Greenwich time, employing their winter harbour rates, proved less than two seconds in error on the arrival of the Hecla in the Thames. The Chronometers were returned to Messrs. PARKINSON and FRODSHAM'S house in London, where, after a month's interval, they were found still going at the same rates as in the Hecla whilst in the harbour of Melville Island.