Jeremy Thacker

Jeremy Thacker was an 18th-century writer and watchmaker (although see the important qualification under 'Hoax?' below), who for a long time was believed to be the first to have coined the word "chronometer" for precise clocks designed to find longitude at sea, though an earlier reference by William Derham has now been found.[1][2] Thacker is credited with writing The Longitudes Examin'd, published in London in 1714, in which the term 'chronometer' appears.[3] In the work, the claim is made that Thacker created and extensively tested a marine chronometer positioned on gimbals and within a vacuum, and that sea trials would take place. It has been concluded by others that such tests must have resulted in failure.[4] The idea of a vacuum for a marine clock had already been proposed by the Italian clockmaker Antimo Tempera in 1668.[5] Slightly later, John Harrison would successfully build marine timekeepers from 1730.[6]

Chronometer of Jeremy Thacker c. 1714.

Hoax?

According to an article[7] published in the Times Literary Supplement in November 2008, Pat Rogers argued that "Thacker may never have existed and his proposal now emerges possibly as a hoax?". Rogers argues Thacker was an invention of John Arbuthnot, and that The Longitudes Examined fell within the major tradition for satire, and that it was designed to send-up ambitious longitude projects. This view met with opposition from Jonathan Betts and Andrew King, both noted Harrisonians, who argued that, as Rogers acknowledged, there were in fact "convincing reasons for accepting the traditional view that some good science is dropped into the project".[8]

Further reading

Gregory Lynall, 'Scriblerian Projections of Longitude: Arbuthnot, Swift, and the Agency of Satire in a Culture of Invention', Journal of Literature and Science, vol. 7, no. 2 (2014), ISSN 1754-646X, pp. 1–18.

Notes
  1. For example, Charles Aked, 'William Derham and the "Artificial Clockmaker"', Antiquarian Horology (September 1970 ), p. 504 – 'Although it is generally conceded that Jeremy Thacker first made use of the term "chronometer" in print in 1714, William Derham used it independently in his communication "Observations concerning the Motions of Chronometers" addressed to the Royal Society on 4 November 1714. In it he discusses the technical difficulties of making an accurate timekeeper for use at sea.'
  2. Köberer, Wolfgang (2 April 2016). "On the First Use of the Term 'Chronometer'". The Mariner's Mirror. 102 (2): 203–206. doi:10.1080/00253359.2016.1167400. ISSN 0025-3359.
  3. Jeremy Thacker, The Longitudes examin'd. Beginning with a short epistle to the Longitudinarians, and ending with the description of a ... machine of my own, etc. (London, 1714)
  4. Andrewes, W.J.H., 'Even Newton could be wrong: the story of Harrison's first three see clocks', in Andrewes W.J.H. (ed), The Quest for Longitude (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard, 1996), p. 192.
  5. Antimo Tempera, L'Oriuolo giusto d'Antimo Tempera utilissimo a'naviganti, etc.., in Roma per Michele Ercole (1688), British Museum General Reference Collection 1578/4715. NB The author is widely reported elsewhere as 'Antonio Tempora', the result of two misprints in earlier works (Baillie's Historical Bibliography and Andrewes on 'Longitude')
  6. Old Ironsides: eagle of the sea : the story of the USS Constitution David G. Fitz-Enz p.92
  7. "The Longitude impostor – TheTLS". www.the-tls.co.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  8. Rogers, Pat (3 April 2009). "Letter following up Jeremy Thacker: Longitude fake?". Times Literary Supplement.
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