John Harrison, Grasshoppers, and an interesting rabbit hole

[bronzerai]

Last week I was attending an online presentation with Dr. Steven Stahl and saw one of the most interesting clocks I have ever come across in the background of his home office. It was a variation of what seems to be identified as a Harrison Grasshopper Clock, named after none other than John Harrison who solved how to measure longitude with the creation of his H4 model.
The Grasshopper Clock is a modern representation of Harrison's H1 model, one of his earlier attempts to solve the longitude problem. My understanding is the modern equivalent utilizes his "grasshopper escapement," contributing to the name of the clock, and is fusee driven with a key wind 8 day reserve. One of the key features are dumbbell shaped pendulums that move simultaneously toward and away from each other which is what drew my attention.
If you're not familiar with the history of John Harrison I would definitely read more about him, seems like he was definitely ahead of his time.
Interesting article on The Atlantic

Anyway on to the pictures:

[Tanukjaju]

When I first saw the title, I thought it was spam. Lol.

Thanks for sharing this

[Aikidosan]

Looks like the key to the H.G. Wells Time Machine

Very cool

[wwwEvgeny]

Thank you very much, very enriching information!

[Zeke part Deux]

Looks like it is alive - beautiful thing.

[blueradish]

That thing is amazing.

[wwwEvgeny]

from my neighbor collection Madeineng clock 1807

[Phaedros]

Awesome! It kinda gives off a „pit and the pendulum“ vibe to me... thank you for posting!

[bronzerai]

Love the patina! I'm holding out for a used moon phase version.

from my neighbor collection Madeineng clock 1807

[burauzaa]

I read a great book about John Harrison's story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)

Fascinating stuff for watch nerds, also an amazing look at some of the other solutions that were proposed to solve the problem.