The Longitude
Details of a Chronometer, by John Harrison
The machine that solved the longitude, to the tooth.
- Work
- Engraved details of a Harrison chronometer
- Maker
- After John Harrison
- Date
- 18th century
- Held by
- Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs (LCCN 2006691764)
- License
- Public domain
- Master
- 4096×3282px
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
Sizes are capped to what this piece’s real source scan honestly supports — we never enlarge past the engraving.
$29.00
The story
John Harrison, a carpenter's son from Yorkshire, spent his life building the clock the age said was impossible: one that could keep time on a moving, pitching, temperature-swinging ship well enough to find longitude at sea. This engraving of details from a Harrison chronometer — springs, wheels, and compensations rendered at the scale of a jeweler's loupe — is the eighteenth century's most valuable machine drawn as engineering scripture. The Library of Congress scan carries the burin work at full print resolution.
See it on your wall
The mechanism, made for a room
Details of a Chronometer, by John Harrison printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of an open-access work held by Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs (LCCN 2006691764), served under the institution’s stated license (Public domain) — source linked below.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper or 400gsm canvas; framed pieces sit behind acrylic.
- The artwork is never cropped and never enlarged past its scan — sizes stop where the engraving stops holding.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs (LCCN 2006691764) — the scan this reproduction is printed from, and the page documenting its public-domain / open-access status. We are unaffiliated with any watch manufacturer, past or present.
