‘Lone’ longitude genius may have had help

The story of John Harrison the “lone genius” who solved the problem of finding longitude at sea is in urgent need of a rewrite.

Discoveries made during repairs to Harrison’s first successful “sea clock” – completed in 1735 – suggest that others contributed to his pioneering timepieces. “Harrison is always cast as a self-taught lone genius pitted against the establishment. The truth is, that is a great over-simplification,” says horologist Jonathan Betts of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London.

I think the idea that equating “lone genius” with “never talked to anyone about their work” is quite a reach. It’s been a while since I read Longitude, but I don’t recall having the impression that Harrison never sought out others to learn things. At what point are you no longer working alone? If you have a bottle-washer? If you don’t smelt your own brass?