This day in history - 27:10:1200.4

 27:10:1200.4 On this day Harrison Stretch unveiled his new and improved clockwork timepiece. It was said to lose only three seconds a year. Unfortunately, the mechanism was slightly impractical as it was the size of a family house. The clockwork movement had to be dismantled when the death toll rose too high. The pendulum, which was eighteen feet long, tipped with a razor-sharp semi-circular blade and swung with such speed and purpose that it could decapitate a bull elephant with one stroke. The clock housing was later converted into an office for the Royal Cartographers Society and became a centre for the solving of the longitude problem.