Episode 336
John Harrison
Wed, 2018-Apr-04 01:51 UTC
Length - 1:57
Direct Link
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.
With 416,968 views on Tuesday, 3 April 2018 our article of the day is John Harrison.
John Harrison (3 April [O.S. 24 March] 1693 – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented a marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea.
His solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel. The problem he solved was considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament offered financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £2.89 million today) under the 1714 Longitude Act. Harrison came 39th in the BBC's 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:51 UTC on Wednesday, 4 April 2018.
For the full current version of the article, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison.
This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives, sister podcasts, and swag. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. You can also follow @WotDpod on Twitter.
Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.
This has been Kimberly. Thank you for listening to popular Wiki of the Day.
|
|
Buy WotD Stuff!!
