THE WENDY HUT

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1928, Page 18

THE WENDY HUT

THE SAILOR’S FRIEND I am not allowed to go out into the world until I have won a certificate proving me to be trustworthy. The trouble and time spent on making me is amazing. When I am complete, and in working order, I go to a special place to take my examThis consists of being nearly frozen to test my ability to keep my head in icy regions, and then being nearly cooked to see whether I can keep cool in the tropics. If I come through these two tests I am given my certificate, and off I go to a brave ship, there to mark time for the rest of my life. I am the sailor's friend—the chronometer. I lie fiat in a box, and I am consulted at regular intervals during the day and night; thanks to me, the sailor can tell where he is, because I keep time with Greenwich, which keeps time with the stars. There was a time when the ships sailed the >, > seas without knowing exactly where they were, and many were lost. The people who ruled England wore distressed for their ships, and offered a reward of £20,000 to anyone who invented a timepiece which would tell the sailor inhere he was. Now in the year 1693, John Harrison was born. When he grew up he became a clockmaker, and then he longed to make a super-clock which would sail the seas in a Ship and keep time with the stars. If only the sailors could look at his clock and know where they were! How he laboured! Oh, the bitter, bitter disappointments! Butin 1759 John Harrison succeeded. The first was made, and John Harrison won £20,000. >' ■ I don’t think he cared tuppence about the money, but I think he would like you to look at his chronometer next time you are on a ship. It has been improved since, but every ship that sails the seas carries a little bit of John Harrison’s heart in her chronometer,