Jeremy Thacker

Chronometer of Jeremy Thacker c. 1714.

Jeremy Thacker was an 18th-century writer and watchmaker, who coined the word "chronometer" for precise clocks designed to find longitude at sea.[1] He himself created a marine chronometer positioned on gimbals and within a vacuum, but it was a failure.[2] The idea of a vacuum for a marine clock had already been proposed by the Italian clockmaker Antonio Tempora in 1668.[1] Slightly later, John Harrison would successfully build marine chronometers from 1730.[2]

He wrote The Longitudes Examined in 1714.[3]

Hoax?

According to an article[4] published in the Times Literary Supplement in November 2008, "Thacker may never of existed and his proposal now emerges possibly as a hoax?".

Notes

  1. 1 2 Encyclopedia of time Samuel L. Macey p.347
  2. 1 2 Old Ironsides: eagle of the sea : the story of the USS Constitution David G. Fitz-Enz p.92
  3. ↑ The world of mathematics by James Roy Newman p.806
  4. ↑ Longitude forged by Pat Rogers
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