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APPENDIX.
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the evidence of George Lewis Scott, Esq. and Mr. James Short.[1]
- ↑ Mr. Short was the excellent friend who assisted him in embodying these details; for though he could express himself with clearness by word of mouth, as the Gentleman who received the explanation of the Invention found; yet (which is a very rare case) his manner, when he took up a pen was altogether peculiar and uncouth. This he could be shown, till his faculties were clouded by age, and availed himself of the assistance of his friends to remedy. We may digress here, to observe how that modesty for which John Harrison was conspicuous in his bright days had forsaken him when, in 1775, at the age of eighty-two, he published his pamphlet entitled, "A DESCRIPTION CONCERNING SUCH MECHANISM AS WILL AFFORD A NICE, OR TRUE, MENSURATION OF TIME:" which also refers to the attempts for finding the Longitude by the Moon, and to a Scale of Music of his invention.[subnote 1] He would accept of no assistance in revising this work;, which is so encumbered by his singular, and undefinable manner of expressing himself in writing, as to be unintelligible to the general reader without a translation: and although it has valuable hints for those who are thorough
he lighted on this ornament to the University, might have mixed more wormwood with his unpalatable account of what was passing in those foundations on Cam and Isis.
- ↑ Voltaire observes of Newton (speaking of his chronology) that he was of a turn to carry improvement into whatever engaged his full attention—a remark which may be extended to our Mechanician. Precarious as is the mode of measuring a ship's way by the Log, he thought they did not make the most of it. His voyage to Lisbon (with the first Timekeeper) having brought him practically acquainted with it, he sketched an improvement, and drew up an account of it, the title of which the Author once saw; and, according to his recollection, it was, "A description of two Pallets, to be introduced in the middle of a great Log." But neither the theory, nor the model, if it was executed, can now be found.
