In 1714 the British Parliament offered a prize of 20,000pounds to anyone who could accurately determine longitude at sea.
A village carpenter named Harrison took up the challenge and solved it by designing an amazing series of clocks and watches.
He had already invented mechanisms to reduce friction, compensate temperature changes.
The saga of Harrison's clocks 1,2, 3 and 4 make for fascinating reading.
Of all the human-made things in the world, leaving aside works of pure art, some of the greatest beauty can be found in boats, especially sailing boats, yachts.
I'm not sure that I have ever seen of L Frances Herreshoff's designs in real life, but I still think they are the most beautiful things ever made. Really. Like ... as beautiful as a beautiful woman, and it is very tough for anything other than nature itself to come close to that.