Editing Longitude rewards (section)

==John Harrison's contested reward==

The winner of the most reward money under the Longitude Act is [[John Harrison]] for sea timekeepers, including his [[John Harrison#H4|H4]] [[marine chronometer|sea watch]]. Harrison was 21 years old when the Longitude Act was passed. He spent the next 45 years perfecting the design of his timekeepers. He first received a reward from the Commissioners of Longitude in 1737 and did not receive his final payment until he was 80.<ref name=Quill>{{cite book|last1=Quill|first1=Humphrey|title=John Harrison: The Man who found Longitude|date=1966|publisher=John Baker Publishers|location=London|bibcode=1966jhmw.book.....Q }}</ref>

Harrison was first awarded £250 in 1737, in order to improve on his promising H1 sea clock, leading to the construction of H2. £2,000 was rewarded over the span of 1741–1755 for continued construction and completion of H2 and H3. From 1760 to 1765, Harrison received £2,865 for various expenses related to the construction, ocean trials, and eventual award for the performance of his sea watch H4.<ref name=Sobel_1/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dunn|first1=Richard|last2=Higgitt|first2=Rebekah|title=Finding longitude: how clocks and stars helped solve the longitude problem|date=2014|publisher=Collins|location=Glasgow|isbn=9780007525867}}</ref> Despite
the performance of the H4 exceeding the accuracy requirement of the highest reward possible in the original [[Longitude Act]], Harrison was rewarded £7,500 (that is, £10,000 minus payments he had received in 1762 and 1764) once he had revealed the method of making his device, and was told that he must show that his single machine could be replicated before the final £10,000 could be paid.<ref name=Andrewes_2/>

Harrison made one rather than the requested two further copies of H4, and he and his family members eventually appealed to [[King George III]] after petitions for further rewards were not answered by the [[Board of Longitude]].<ref name=Quill/> A reward of £8,750 was granted by Parliament in 1773 for a total payment of £23,065 spanning thirty-six years.<ref name=Andrewes_2/>