Chapter 14: The Mass Production of Genius Summary and Analysis

John Harrison died on March 24th, 1776, at the age of 83. He became a martyr to clockmakers. After his death, clock-making boomed. Some claimed that Harrison's work allowed Britain to master the seas, holding that his clocks changed history. After Harrison's death, Kendall worked on K-2, attempting to reduce its price. But K-2 was shown to be fairly unimpressive. In 1774, Kendall built K-3 which did no better. Another clockmaker, Thomas Mudge, also built several good clocks, but ended up going head to head with Maskelyne until the 1790s. Later John Arnold made several hundred watches of high quality. He made so many through using cheaper labor to do the easier tasks, saving the hardest tasks for himself. In 1779, Arnold created a pocket watch which Maskelyne tested for over a year. It stayed...