Board of Longitude
Encyclopedia
The Board of Longitude was the popular name for the Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea. It was a British Government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding longitude
at sea.
's fleet off the Isles of Scilly
, resulting in heavy loss of life. Established by the Longitude Act in 1714, the Board gathered the greatest scientific minds of the day to work on the problem, including Sir Isaac Newton
, and put up prizes for those who could demonstrate a working device or method.
The main longitude prize
s were:
In addition, the Board had the discretion to make awards to persons who were making significant contributions to the effort or to provide financial support to those who were working towards a solution. The Board could also make advances of up to £2,000 for experimental work deemed promising. Under this heading, the Board made many lesser awards, including some awards in total £5000 made to John Harrison
before he received his main prize, an award of £3000 to the widow of Tobias Mayer
, whose lunar tables were at the basis of the lunar data in the early decades of the Nautical Almanac
, £300 to Leonhard Euler
for his (assumed) contribution to the work of Mayer, £50 each to Richard Dunthorne
and Israel Lyons
for contributing methods to shorten the calculations connected with lunar distances, and awards made to the designers of improvements in chronometers.
Even though many tried their hand at winning the main prize, for decades none were able to come up with a practical solution to the problem. The Board recognised that any serious attempt would be based on the recognition that the earth rotates through 15° of longitude every hour. The comparison of time between a known place (e.g., Greenwich) and the local time would determine longitude. Since local apparent time could be determined with some ease, the problem centred on finding a means of determining the time at a known place.
For details of the efforts towards determining the longitude, see History of longitude
.
was used by mariners either in conjunction with or instead of the marine chronometer. However, with the expectation that accurate clocks would eventually become commonplace, John Harrison
showed that his method was the way of the future. However the board, to its discredit, never awarded the prize to Harrison, nor anyone else.
With the significant problems considered as solved, the Board of Longitude was abolished by act of Parliament in 1828.
Longitude
Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
at sea.
Origins
Navigators and scientists had been working on the problem of not knowing a ship's longitude. The establishment of the Board of Longitude was motivated by this problem and by the 1707 grounding of four ships of Vice-Admiral Sir Cloudesley ShovellCloudesley Shovell
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell , was an English naval officer. Rising through the ranks and fighting in many of the important battles of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, he became a popular British hero, whose celebrated career was brought to an end in a disastrous shipwreck in...
's fleet off the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
, resulting in heavy loss of life. Established by the Longitude Act in 1714, the Board gathered the greatest scientific minds of the day to work on the problem, including Sir Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, and put up prizes for those who could demonstrate a working device or method.
The main longitude prize
Longitude prize
The Longitude Prize was a reward offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude...
s were:
- £10,000 for a method that could determine longitude within 60 nautical miles (111 km)
- £15,000 for a method that could determine longitude within 40 nautical miles (74 km)
- £20,000 for a method that could determine longitude within 30 nautical miles (56 km).
In addition, the Board had the discretion to make awards to persons who were making significant contributions to the effort or to provide financial support to those who were working towards a solution. The Board could also make advances of up to £2,000 for experimental work deemed promising. Under this heading, the Board made many lesser awards, including some awards in total £5000 made to John Harrison
John Harrison
John Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age...
before he received his main prize, an award of £3000 to the widow of Tobias Mayer
Tobias Mayer
Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.He was born at Marbach, in Württemberg, and brought up at Esslingen in poor circumstances. A self-taught mathematician, he had already published two original geometrical works when, in 1746, he entered J.B. Homann's...
, whose lunar tables were at the basis of the lunar data in the early decades of the Nautical Almanac
The Nautical Almanac
The Nautical Almanac has been the familiar name for a series of official British almanacs published under various titles since the first issue of The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, for 1767: this was the first nautical almanac ever to contain data dedicated to the convenient...
, £300 to Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
for his (assumed) contribution to the work of Mayer, £50 each to Richard Dunthorne
Richard Dunthorne
Richard Dunthorne was an English astronomer and surveyor, who worked in Cambridge as astronomical and scientific assistant to Roger Long , and also concurrently for many years as surveyor to the Bedford Level Corporation.-Life and work:There are short biographical notes of Dunthorne, one in...
and Israel Lyons
Israel Lyons
Israel Lyons the younger mathematician and botanist, was born at Cambridge, the son of Israel Lyons the elder . He was regarded as a prodigy, especially in mathematics, and Robert Smith, master of Trinity College, took him under his wing and paid for his attendance...
for contributing methods to shorten the calculations connected with lunar distances, and awards made to the designers of improvements in chronometers.
Even though many tried their hand at winning the main prize, for decades none were able to come up with a practical solution to the problem. The Board recognised that any serious attempt would be based on the recognition that the earth rotates through 15° of longitude every hour. The comparison of time between a known place (e.g., Greenwich) and the local time would determine longitude. Since local apparent time could be determined with some ease, the problem centred on finding a means of determining the time at a known place.
For details of the efforts towards determining the longitude, see History of longitude
History of longitude
The history of longitude is a record of the effort, by navigators and scientists over several centuries, to discover a means of determining longitude....
.
End of the Board's mandate
For many decades a sufficiently accurate chronometer was prohibitively expensive. The lunar distance methodLunar distance (navigation)
In celestial navigation, lunar distance is the angle between the Moon and another celestial body. A navigator can use a lunar distance and a nautical almanac to calculate Greenwich time...
was used by mariners either in conjunction with or instead of the marine chronometer. However, with the expectation that accurate clocks would eventually become commonplace, John Harrison
John Harrison
John Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age...
showed that his method was the way of the future. However the board, to its discredit, never awarded the prize to Harrison, nor anyone else.
With the significant problems considered as solved, the Board of Longitude was abolished by act of Parliament in 1828.