Unbelievable Accuracy From 18th Century Clock

A clock based on a design from 300 years ago has stunned experts by keeping accurate to a second for 100 days.

The modern-day Martin Burgess Clock B is based on John Harrison's 18th century clock, which he thought up to solve the problem of determining longitude at sea.

It has been part of a 100-day trial at the Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, to see if the claim - that the clock would neither lose nor gain more than a second in 100 days - was true.

[...]Jonathan Betts, a member of the Antiquarian Horological Society, said: 'As soon as we set the clock running it was clear that it was performing incredibly well, so then we got the case sealed because nobody was going to believe how well the clock was running.'

He added that the clock was not a replica of Harrison's, but used his design and concept.

'It is important to realise his design goes against everything the establishment has claimed is the best throughout history,' Mr Betts added.

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The accurate measurement of time was and is incredibly important to navigation, even today.

Our present system of satellite GPS communications is utterly dependent on the accurate measure of time.