ns.
This clock was so skillfully adjusted that it did not vary a second a
month. So you can see that despite the fact Harrison was not a member of
the Clockmakers' Company he was certainly qualified to be."

"And did he go after the prize money?"

"Apparently the offer tempted him. Perhaps he not only desired to win
the fortune offered but also wished the fun of solving the riddle the
government propounded. At any rate, in 1728 he came to London prepared
to present drawings of an instrument he felt certain would turn the
trick and had not his friends deterred him he would have placed these
sketches before the commission. Fortunately, however, he had excellent
advisers (among whom was honest John Graham) and they assured him he
would stand a far better chance of securing a favorable hearing should
he first construct the instrument of which he at present had nothing but
pictures. Now such counsel as this was pretty disheartening to a young
man who, fired with hope and ambition, had come all the way to London
confidently expecting to have his plan hailed with joy when he arrived.
Nevertheless Harrison was open-minded enough to accept his friends'
guidance and acting upon it he went home again and worked for seven
years on the instrument he had drawn out on paper."

"And then did he bring it to London?" was Christopher's breathless
demand.

"Yes," affirmed McPhearson. "The contrivance, however, was by no means
perfect. Still it showed sufficient promise to interest the
commissioners and lead them to give Harrison permission to go to Lisbon
on one of the king's ships; that he might correct his reckonings by
taking practical observations at sea. Moreover they also paid him L5,000
of the prize money to encourage him. This financial spur, together with
the faith it represented, stimulated the patient instrument-maker to
fashion a second timekeeper on which he spent four years of hard work.
But even this one, although better than the first, failed to meet the
demands, and he tried again, taking ten years to perfect a third. This
was smaller and as it seemed to foreshadow good results he was awarded
the gold medal annually presented by the Royal Society for the most
useful nautical discovery thus far made. Yet notwithstanding this
triumph the article he had produced did not suit him. Experience had, in
the meantime, taught him a great deal, and after more corrections and
improvements he came again before the committee and ask