Finding Longitude
Page 19
Fig. 11
Paris Observatory, 1729 (NMM PAJ3502)
Fig. 12
Map of France from Recueil d’Observations (Paris, 1693) (NMM PBG0584)
Fig. 13
Title page of Introductio Geographica, Peter Apian (Ingolstadt, 1533) (NMM PBN1982)
Fig. 14
Decorated ivory cross-staff, by Thomas Tuttell, c.1700 (NMM NAV0505)
Fig. 15
Royal Observatory from Crooms Hill, British School, c.1696 (NMM BHC1812)
Fig. 16
The effects of the Sun on the Moon’s motion, from Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Cambridge, 1713) (NMM AAB0813)
Fig. 17
The Octagon Room at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, by Francis Place, c.1676 (NMM ZBA1808)
Fig. 18
Marine timekeeper, by Severyn Oosterwijck, c.1662 (Private collection)
Fig. 19
Frontispiece to Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal-Society of London (London, 1667) (NMM PBG0382)
Fig. 20
Christiaan Huygens’ design for a marine timekeeper, originally drawn c.1685–86, from Oeuvres Complètes de Christiaan Huygens, 22 vols (Den Haag, 1888–1950), IX, p. 54 (Private collection)
Fig. 21
Longitude timekeeper, designed by Lothar and Conrad Zumbach de Koesfelt, made by Franciscus le Dieu, 1749 (Boerhaave Museum, Leiden V09204)
Fig. 22
Plate from Henry Sully’s Description Abrégée d’une Horlorge d’une Nouvelle Invention (Paris, 1724) (NMM ZBA2248.2)
1 An Act for providing a Publick Reward for such Person or Persons as shall discover the Longitude at Sea (13 Anne, c. 14), 1713.
2 ‘In praise of the choice company of Philosophers and Witts who meet on Wednesdays weekly, at Gresham College’, BL Add. MS 34217, ff. 30–1, quoted in F. Sherwood Taylor, ‘An Early Satirical poem on the Royal Society’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 5 (1947), pp. 37–46, (p. 42).
3 Miguel de Cervantes, A Dialogue Between Scipio and Bergansa, Two Dogs Belonging to the City of Toledo (London, 1767), pp. 107–08.
4 An Act for providing a Publick Reward for such Person or Persons as shall discover the Longitude at Sea (13 Anne, c. 14), 1713.
5 The National Archives Currency Converter
6 Isaac Newton, ‘Report to the Lords of the Admiralty on the Different Projects for Determining the Longitude at Sea’, Newton Papers, CUL Add.3972, p. 32r (CDL,
7 William Whiston, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston (London, 1749), p. 294.
8 Journals of the House of Commons, 17 (London, 1803), 25 May 1714, pp. 641–42.
9 Isaac Newton, ‘Report to the Lords of the Admiralty’.
10 Benedetto Castelli to Galileo, 11 September 1617, quoted in Albert Van Helden, ‘Longitude and the Satellites of Jupiter’, in William J. H. Andrewes (ed.), The Quest for Longitude (Cambridge, Mass., 1996), pp. 85–100, (p. 91).
11 Clements R. Markham (ed.), The Voyages of William Baffin (London, 1881), p. 22.
12 Quoted in D. J. Bryden, ‘Magnetic Inclinatory Needles: Approved by the Royal Society?’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 47 (1993), 17–31 (p. 19).
13 Royal Warrant, quoted in Derek Howse, Greenwich Time and the Longitude (London, 1997), p. 42.
14 John Conduitt, ‘Notes on Newton’s character’, King’s College, Cambridge, Keynes MS 130.07, 6v.
15 William Whiston and Humphry Ditton, A New Method for Discovering the Longitude both at Sea and Land (London, 1714), pp. 16–17.
16 Ibid.
CHAPTER 3
Fig. 1
A summary of the 1714 Longitude Act (Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam A.4876 (546))
Fig. 2
‘Viaticum Nautarum or The Sailor’s Vade Mecum’, by Robert Wright, 1726 (NMM NVT/5)
Fig. 3
Dorotheo Alimari’s observing instrument, from The New Method Proposed by Dorotheo Alimari to Discover the Longitude, by Sebastiano Ricci (London, c.1714) (NMM PBD1145)
Fig. 4
A satirical print, The Coffee House Politicians, c.1733 (British Museum 1868,0808.13254)
Fig. 5
Jeremy Thacker’s proposed longitude timekeeper, from The Longitudes Examin’d (London, 1714) (British Library 533.f. 22)
Fig. 6
The final plate of William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, 1735 (British Museum 1868, 0822. 1536)
Fig. 7
Precision long-case regulator, by John Harrison, 1726 (Private collection)
Fig. 8
Marine timekeeper H1, by John Harrison, completed in 1735 (NMM/MoD ZAA0034)
Fig. 9
Model of the Centurion, by Benjamin Slade, made in 1747 for George Anson (NMM SLR0442)
Fig. 10
Log of the Centurion, by Captain John Proctor, 1736 (NMM ADM/L/C/82)
Fig. 11
‘A Chart of the Southern Part of South America with the Track of the Centurion’, by Richard Seale, 1748 (NMM G244:1/2)
Fig. 12
Marine timekeeper H2, by John Harrison, 1737–39 (NMM/MoD ZAA0035)
Fig. 13
Marine timekeeper H3, by John Harrison, 1740–59 (NMM/MoD ZAA0036)
Fig. 14
Drawing of part of H3, by John Harrison, c.1740 (NMM ZAA0882)
Fig. 15
John Harrison, by Thomas King, c.1765–66 (Science Museum 1884-217)
Fig. 16
Construction drawings for the mechanism of H4, by John Harrison, c.1756 (Worshipful Company of Clockmakers)
Fig. 17
Marine timekeeper H4, by John and William Harrison, 1755–59 (NMM/MoD ZAA0037)
Fig. 18
John Hadley, attributed to Bartholomew Dandridge, early 1730s (NMM BHC2731)
Fig. 19
Hadley quadrant or octant, c.1744 (Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam B.0021(02))
Fig. 20
Thomas Godfrey’s proposal for a double-reflection instrument (The Royal Society EL/L6/59)
Fig. 21
Backstaff with artificial horizon, designed by John Elton and made by Jonathan Sisson, c.1732 (NMM NAV0039)
Fig. 22
‘Book of Drafts and Remarks’, by Archibald Hamilton, 1763 (NMM NVP/11)
Fig. 23
Tobias Mayer, by an unknown artist, mid-eighteenth century (Private collection)
Fig. 24
‘Germaniae atque in ea Locorum Principaliorum Mappa Critica’, by Tobias Mayer, 1750 (British Library Maps 26905.(27.))
Fig. 25
Mayer’s design for a repeating circle, from Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunae Novae (London, 1770) (NMM PBG0823)
Fig. 26
Marine sextant, by John Bird, c.1758 (NMM NAV1177)
Fig. 27
Nevil Maskelyne, by John Russell, c.1776 (NMM ZBA4305)
Fig. 28
The British Mariner’s Guide, by Nevil Maskelyne (London, 1763) (NMM PBD1847)
Fig. 29
A sixteenth-century design for a marine observing chair, from Le Cosmolabe, by Jacques Besson (Paris, 1567) (NMM PBE5169)
Fig. 30
‘View of Bridgetown and part of Carlisle Bay in the Island of Barbadoes’, by Edward Brenton, late eighteenth century (NMM PAF8416)
1 Quoted in Barry Slepian, ‘George Faulkner’s Dublin Journal and Jonathan Swift’, Library Chronicle, 31 (1965), 97–116 (p. 100).
2 Anonymous, A Hymn to the Chair: or, Lucubrations, Serious and Comical, on the Use of Chairs, Benches, Forms, Joint-Stools, Three-Legged Stools, and Ducking-Stools (London, 1732), p. 19.
3 Daniel Defoe, Essays upon Several Projects (London, 1702), p. 4.
4 Edmund Stone, Some Reflections on the Uncertainty of Many Astronomical and Geographical Positions (London, 1766), pp. x–
xi.
5 John Flamsteed to Abraham Sharp, 31 August 1714, in E. G. Forbes et al. (eds), The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, The First Astronomer Royal, 3 vols (Bristol & Philadelphia, 2002), III, p. 700.
6 John Flamsteed to Abraham Sharp, 23 October 1714, in Forbes et al., Correspondence of John Flamsteed, III, p. 712.
7 Isaac Newton, draft letter on finding the longitude at sea, CUL Add.3972.3–4, fol. 38r (CDL,
8 Jane Squire, A Proposal to Determine Our Longitude (London, 1743), p. 40.
9 Ibid., p. 33.
10 John Houghton, ‘A Discourse of Coffee’, Philosophical Transactions, 21 (1699), 311–17 (p. 317).
11 ‘Lecture the 19th Read on Monday, 26th February 1705/6’, CUL RGO 1/68/G, fols 261–62.
12 Jeremy Thacker, The Longitudes Examin’d (London, 1714), title page, p. iii.
13 William Ward and Caleb Smith, The Description and Use of a New Astronomical Instrument (London, 1735), p. 4.
14 Jonathan Swift, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World ... By Lemuel Gulliver, 2 vols (London, 1726), II, pp. 133, 136.
15 George Lyttelton, Letters from a Persian in England (London, 1735), p. 14.
16 John Arbuthnot to Jonathan Swift, 17 July 1714, quoted in Larry Stewart, The Rise of Public Science (Cambridge, 1992), p. 192.
17 Charles Kirby-Miller (ed.), Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus (Oxford, 1988), pp. 166–67.
18 ‘Ode for Musick on the Longitude’, in Jonathan Swift, A Supplement to Dr. Swift’s works (Edinburgh, 1753), pp. 341–42.
19 The Longitude Discover’d: A Tale (London, 1726), p. 10.
20 The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley M.D., 3 vols (Durham, 1882–87), II, p. 298.
21 Sir Charles Wager to Captain Proctor, 14 May 1736, quoted in John Harrison, An Account of the Proceedings, in Order to the Discovery of the Longitude (London, 1763), p. 17.
22 Captain Proctor to Sir Charles Wager, 17 May 1736, quoted in Harrison, An Account of the Proceedings, p. 18.
23 London Evening Post, 30 June 1737.
24 BoL, confirmed minutes, 4 June 1746, CUL RGO 14/5, p. 14 (CDL,
25 William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty (London, 1753), p. 70.
26 BoL, confirmed minutes, 17 August 1762, CUL RGO 14/5, p. 38 (CDL,
27 John Hadley, ‘The Description of a New Instrument for Taking Angles’, Philosophical Transactions, 37 (1731–32), 147–57.
28 John Hadley, ‘An Account of Observations Made on Board the Chatham-Yacht, August 30th and 31st, and September 1st, 1732’, Philosophical Transactions, 37 (1731–32), 341–56 (p. 351).
29 Lieutenant John Elliot to his father, 4 May 1756, NMM ELL/400, item 12.
30 Tobias Mayer to Carsten Niebuhr, 2 July 1761, Universitäts-Bibliothek, Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel, Nachlass Carsten Niebuhr, Cod. MS KB 314.5, no. 8, quoted in Lawrence J. Baack, ‘‘‘A Practical Skill that Was Without Equal”: Carsten Niebuhr and the Navigational Astronomy of the Arabian Journey, 1761–7’, Mariner’s Mirror, 99 (2013), 138–52 (p. 143).
31 Nevil Maskelyne, The British Mariner’s Guide (London, 1763), pp. iv–v.
32 The London Magazine, or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, 28 (1759), 505.
33 Lloyd’s Evening Post and British Chronicle, 8–10 October 1760.
34 Busy Body, 27 October 1759.
35 Bengt Ferrner, diary entry, 12 October 1759, in Bengt Ferrner, Resa I Europa 1758–1762, ed. by Sten G. Lindberg (Uppsala, 1956), p. 147 (translation by Jacob Orrje).
36 William Philip Best to Johann David Michaelis, 9 October 1759, Göttingen University Archive Cod. MS. Mich. 320, fols 618–19 (transcription by Albert Kreyer; translation by Wolfgang Köberer).
37 London Chronicle, 24–26 August 1762.
38 Nevil Maskelyne to Edmund Maskelyne, 29 December 1763, NMM REG09/000037 (CDL,
39 ‘Harrison Journal’, 1817, State Library of Victoria H17809, p. 112.
40 BoL, confirmed minutes, 9 February 1765, CUL RGO 14/5, p. 77 (CDL,
41 Ibid., p. 78 (CDL,
CHAPTER 4
Fig. 1
The Royal Observatory from the south-east, unknown artist, c.1770 (NMM AST0042)
Fig. 2
The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for 1767 (NMM/ZBA5690)
Fig. 3
Tables Requisite to be used with the Astronomical and Nautical Almanac (London, 1766) (NMM PBH6275)
Fig. 4
Instruments at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, drawing by John Charnock, about 1785 (NMMPAF2956)
Fig. 5
Nevil Maskelyne’s ‘observing suit’, about 1765 (NMM ZBA4675–6)
Fig. 6
Nevil Maskelyne, by Louis François Gérard van der Puyl, 1785 (The Royal Society P/0088)
Fig. 7
List of reference books required by the computers, compiled by Nevil Maskelyne in 1799 (CUL RGO 4/324, f. 21v)
Fig. 8
List by Nevil Maskelyne of work allocated to computers and comparers in 1791–93 for the 1803 Nautical Almanac (CUL RGO 4/324, f. 4r)
Fig. 9
Date and signature on H4 (NMM/MoD ZAA0037)
Fig. 10
Drawings from The Principles of Mr. Harrison’s Timekeeper (London, 1767) (NMM ZAA0643)
Fig. 11
Marine timekeeper K1, by Larcum Kendall, 1769 (NMM/MoD ZAA0038)
Fig. 12
Marine timekeepers, by John Arnold, c.1771 (The Royal Society T/002, T/003)
Fig. 13
Horloge marine no. 8, by Ferdinand Berthoud, 1767 (CNAM Paris 01389)
Fig. 14
Le Tellier, Journal du Voyage de M. le Marquis de Courtanvaux (Paris, 1768) (NMM PBA1788)
Fig. 15
Marine timekeeper, by William Snellen, c.1775 (NMM ZAA0282)
Fig. 16
Marine timekeeper H5, by John Harrison, completed 1770 (The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers)
Fig. 17
Concluding page from H5’s Kew Observatory trial, by Stephen Demainbray, 1772 (King’s College London K/MUS 1/6)
Fig. 18
Medallion portrait of John Harrison by James Tassie, c.1776 (NMM OBJ0563)
Fig. 19
Printed lunar-distance form, published by Robert Bishop, 1768 (NMM G298:1/3)
1 Foreword by the Commissioners of Longitude, Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1767 (London, 1766) [no page number].
2 An Act for explaining and rendering more effectual two Acts ... (5 Geo. 3, c. 20), 1765.
3 Anonymous letter, The Gentleman’s Magazine, 35 (1765), 34–35.
4 BoL confirmed minutes, 9 February 1765, CUL RGO 14/5, p. 77 (CDL,
5 Nevil Maskelyne to Edmund Maskelyne, 15 May 1766, NMM REG 09/000037.
6 Ibid.
7 ‘Qualities to be required for an Assistant, May 19. 1787’, Memorandum Book 1782–88, Story Maskelyne of Purton papers, Wiltshire and Swindon Archives 1390/2d.
8 BoL confirmed minutes, 9 February 1765, CUL RGO 14/5, p. 78 (CDL,
9 Harrison Journal, 1817, State Library of Victoria H17809, p. 55.
10 Nevil Maskelyne, An Account of the Going of Mr. John Harrison’s Watch, at the Royal Observatory (London, 1767), p. 24.