Roman Mars

Satisfied finally with his invention, Harrison presented H4 to the board of longitude.

The board agreed to send the timepiece on its official trial to Jamaica, with that big fat pile of quid resting on the results.

Harrison himself was getting up in age.

He was almost 70.

So in classic dad fashion, he made his kid do it.

But when William returned home expecting to claim the reward, the Board of Longitude said that, sorry, actually, the trial was void.

Partly because they thought the result might be a fluke.

And partly because they didn't actually know the longitude of Jamaica.

From this point on, the Board of Longitude kept holding the prize just out of reach.

In 1764, Harrison got a new trial, this time to Barbados.

He aces it again, but the board equivocates.

And the new commissioners of Longitude were unfortunately the worst thing an eccentric creative type could encounter.

They were pragmatists.

Here's Alexi Baker again.

Not to mention that Harrison had in fact been so slow that the astronomers who had taken centuries to find a solution to longitude had basically caught up.

They actually had found an okay way of calculating longitude called the lunar distance method.

And it worked.

As long as you had a highly educated person on board, a set of tables, and several hours of calculation time to spare.

William Harrison personally appealed to famous clock enthusiast and America loser King George III to step in.

Speaking to William at Windsor Castle, the king supposedly said that they had been cruelly treated and exclaimed, by God, Harrison, I will see you righted.