Others studied the Earth’s magnetic variation (the difference between true north and magnetic north), hoping it formed a usable pattern. Harrison had never been to sea and had little formal education, yet he possessed extraordinary mechanical insight and an almost obsessive perfectionism. He appealed to King George III, who took a personal interest and had the watch tested at the palace. Under pressure, Parliament eventually voted Harrison substantial payments, though he never received the full official prize in the clean form originally envisioned. He died in 1776, recognized at last as the man who had solved the practical problem of longitude.John Harrison’s H4 chronometer which solved the longitude problem