Science Lost and Longitude Found: The Tercentenary of John Harrison

Gould R.T. , The marine chronometer, its history and development (London, 1923; repr. 1960).

Quill H. , John Harrison, the man who found longitude (London, 1966), 202–5.

Laycock W. S. , The lost science of John “Longitude” Harrison (Ashford, Kent, 1976), 81.

Ibid., 80.

Randall A. G. , “The technology of John Harrison's portable timekeepers”, Antiquarian horology, xviii (1989), 145–60, 261–77; the paper announced by Martin Burgess for the Longitude Symposium at Harvard is entitled, “The scandalous neglect of Harrison's regulator science”.

On Machin, see Dictionary of national biography, and Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century, ed. by Rigaud S. P. (Oxford, 1841), i, 280.

An account of the proceedings in order to the discovery of the longitude at sea (London, 1763), 19–21.

Cambridge University Library MS RGO (hereafter “RGO”), 14, 5, pp. 3–4.

Ibid., p. 8.

Ibid. , p. 11; An account (ref. 7), 21.

The text of the Act is given in an appendix to Quill , op. cit. (ref. 2), 225–7.

RGO, 14, 5, p. 78; A narrative of the proceedings relative to the discovery of the longitude at sea; by Mr. John Harrison's time-keeper … (London, 1765), 16.

RGO, 14, 5, p. 77; A narrative (ref. 12), 15. For a contemporary view of the inadequacy of the original legislation, see The monthly review; or literary journal, liii (1775), 320–9.

An account (ref. 7), p. v.

Here a beginning has been made by Anthony Turner in his Dingwall-Beloe Lecture of 1991, see Turner A. J. , “Berthoud in England, Harrison in France: The transmission of horological knowledge in 18th century Europe”, Antiquarian horology, xx (1992), 219–39. Note also Stewart L. , The rise of public science (Cambridge, 1992), ch. 6.

RGO 14, 5, p. 97.

Meyer's case is presented in Forbes E. G. , “Who discovered the longitude at sea?”, Sky & telescope, xli (1971), 4–6; see also Forbes E. G. , “Tobias Mayer's contribution to the development of lunar theory”, Journal for the history of astronomy, i (1970), 144–54, and The birth of navigational science (London, 1974). The draft of Thomas Hornsby's argument on Bird's behalf is preserved as Royal Astronomical Society MSS Radcliffe, A.1.43. See also Howse D. , Nevile Maskelyne, the seaman's astronomer (Cambridge, 1989).

RGO 13, 5, pp. 20–21.

Ibid., pp. 78–79.

Harrison J. , A description concerning such mechanism as will afford a nice, or true mensuration of time … (London, 1775), 43, 53, 58, 59–63, 66. On the lunar method, see also Harrison J. , Remarks on a pamphlet lately published by Rev. Mr. Maskelyne (London, 1767), 30–34.

Guildhall Library, London, MS 6026, no. 1, currently on display at the National Maritime Museum; Harrison , op. cit. (ref. 20), title-page.

Ibid., 45, 59, 103.

Royal Astronomical Society MSS, Radcliffe, A. 1.9.

Quill , op. cit. (ref. 2), 151–2.