Longitude prize

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. The prize, established through an Act of Parliament (the Longitude Act) in 1714, was administered by the Board of Longitude. It was eventually awarded in 1765 to John Harrison for his chronometer.

This was by no means the first such prize to be offered. Philip II of Spain offered a prize in 1567, Philip III in 1598 offered 6,000 ducats and a pension,[1] whilst the States-General of the Netherlands offered 10,000 florins.[2] But these large prizes were never won, though several people were awarded smaller sums to continue their research.

The problem of longitude

The measurement of longitude was a problem that came into sharp focus as people began making transoceanic voyages. Determining latitude was relatively easy in that it could be found from the altitude of the sun at noon with the aid of a table giving the sun's declination for the day.[3] For longitude, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning. This was inaccurate on long voyages out of sight of land and these voyages sometimes ended in tragedy. Finding an adequate solution to determining longitude was of paramount importance.

For details on many of the other efforts towards determining the longitude, see History of longitude.

Prizes offered

The main longitude prizes 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 ongoing financial support to those who were working productively towards the solution. The Board could also make advances of up to £2,000 for experimental work deemed promising.[4]

As a result of the disputes and changes in the rules (legislated or otherwise) for the prize, no one was deemed qualified for any of the official prizes. None of the major prizes were ever awarded.

Significant recipients

Many persons benefited from the awards offered by the Board. In total, over £100,000 was given in the form of encouragements and awards. Significant among these are:[5][6]

Name Amount Reason
John Harrison £15,315 Received in several payments. £5,315 was awarded during his work on his chronometers from 1737 to 1764 with the remaining £10,000 provided in 1765.
Tobias Mayer £3,000 Contributions to the lunar distance method. His widow received the money due to Mayer's untimely death.
Thomas Mudge £3,000 Construction of chronometers with improvements to Harrison's designs.
John Arnold £3,000 Design and improvements to chronometers.
Thomas Earnshaw £3,000 Design and improvements to chronometers.
Charles Mason £1,317 Various contributions and improvements on Mayer’s lunar tables.
Jesse Ramsden £615 Design and construction of a superior dividing engine (£300) and publishing the design (£315).
Larcum Kendall £500 Construction of a copy of Harrison's H-4.
Leonhard Euler £300 Contributions to the lunar distance method in aid of Mayer.
Nathaniel Davies £300 Design of a Lunars telescope for Mayer

Harrison also received £8,750 from Parliament in thanks for his work, bringing his total lifetime award to £23,065.

In culture

Rupert T. Gould's 1923 "The Marine Chronometer" (ISBN 0907462057) is a thorough reference work on the Marine Chronometer. It covers the chronometer's history from the earliest attempts to measure longitude while including detailed discussions and illustrations of the various mechanisms and their inventors.

Dava Sobel's 1996 bestseller Longitude (ISBN 0-14-025879-5) recounts Harrison's story. A film adaptation of Longitude was released by Granada Productions and A&E in 2000, starring Michael Gambon as Harrison and Jeremy Irons as Rupert Gould.

See also

References

  1. ↑ O'Connor, J J; Robertson, E F (1997). "Longitude and the Académie Royale". MacTutor History of Mathematics. 
  2. ↑ Bell, A.E. (1950). The Life of Christian Huygens. Edward Arnold, London. p. 35. 
  3. ↑ Latitude can also be determined from Polaris, the northern pole star. However, since Polaris is not precisely at the pole, it can only estimate the latitude unless the precise time is known or many measurements are made over time. While many measurements can be made on land, this makes it impractical for determining latitude at sea.
  4. ↑ Taylor, E.G.R., The Haven-finding Art: A History of Navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook, Hollis & Carter, London 1971, ISBN 0-370-01347-6
  5. ↑ Sobel, Dava, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Walker and Company, New York, 1995 ISBN 0-8027-1312-2
  6. ↑ Varzeliotis, A.N. Thomas, Time Under Sail, Alcyone Books, 1998, ISBN 0-921081-10-3

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.