Editing Board of Longitude

{{Short description|British government department tasked with improving accurate marine chronometry}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox organization
| full_name = Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea
| formation = {{start date|1714}}
| founder = [[Longitude Act 1714]]
| dissolved = {{end date|1828}}
| type = Government body
| purpose = administration of a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding [[longitude]] at sea
| membership = 24
| membership_year = 1714
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Discovery of Longitude at Sea Act 1713
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of Great Britain
| long_title            = 
| year                  = 1713
| citation              = [[13 Ann.]] c. 14 (Ruffhead c. 15)
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 9 July 1714
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
The '''Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea''', or more popularly '''Board of Longitude''', 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.

==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 Scilly naval disaster|1707 grounding of four ships]] of Vice-Admiral [[Cloudesley Shovell|Sir Cloudesley Shovell]]'s fleet off the [[Isles of Scilly]], resulting in heavy loss of life. Established by [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] the [[Longitude Act 1714]] named 24 Commissioners of Longitude, key figures from politics, the Navy, astronomy and mathematics.<ref>{{cite web|title=Acts of Parliament and awards|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00001/19|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|access-date=22 July 2013}}</ref> However, the Board did not meet until at least 1737<ref>{{cite web|title=Commissioners of Longitude|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/ES-LON-00004|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|access-date=22 July 2013}}</ref> when interest grew in [[John Harrison]]'s marine timekeeper.

The Board administered prizes for those who could demonstrate a working device or method. The main [[longitude prize]]s were:
*£10,000 for a method that could determine longitude within {{convert|60|nmi}} (£{{Inflation|UK|10,000|1714|fmt=c|r=-5}} as of {{inflation-year|UK}})
*£15,000 for a method that could determine longitude within {{convert|40|nmi}} (£{{Inflation|UK|15,000|1714|fmt=c|r=-5}} as of {{inflation-year|UK}})
*£20,000 for a method that could determine longitude within {{convert|30|nmi}} (£{{Inflation|UK|20,000|1714|fmt=c|r=-5}} as of {{inflation-year|UK}}).

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.<ref name="egrtaylor">Taylor, E.G.R., ''The Haven-finding Art: A History of Navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook'', Hollis &amp; Carter, London 1971, {{ISBN|0-370-01347-6}}</ref> Under this heading, the Board  made many lesser awards, including some awards in total £5,000 made to [[John Harrison]] before he received his main prize, an award of £3,000 to the widow of [[Tobias Mayer]], whose lunar tables were 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 was 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 local time between a reference place (e.g., [[Greenwich]]) and the local time of the place in question would determine the longitude of that place.  Since local apparent time could be determined with some ease, the problem centred on finding a means of determining (or in the case of chronometers, keeping) the time of the reference place when one is far away from it.

For details of the efforts towards determining the longitude, see [[History of longitude]].

==End of the board's mandate==
For many decades a sufficiently accurate chronometer was prohibitively expensive.  The [[Lunar distance (navigation)|lunar distance method]] 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 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 and replaced by a [[Resident Committee for Scientific Advice for the Admiralty]] consisting of three scientific advisors: [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]], [[Michael Faraday]] and [[Edward Sabine]].<ref name="Baker">{{cite web|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/ES-LON-00023/1|title=Longitude Acts|last=Baker|first=Alexi|date=July 2013|work=Longitude Essays|publisher=[[University of Cambridge]]|access-date=15 April 2015}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Geography}}
* [[Longitude (book)|''Longitude'' (book)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum National Maritime Museum, UK.]
*[http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/longitude Cambridge Digital Library] presents digitised works from the archive of the [[Royal Greenwich Observatory]], held at [[Cambridge University Library]].

{{Admiralty Department|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Board Of Longitude}}
[[Category:Royal Navy]]
[[Category:History of navigation]]
[[Category:1714 establishments in Great Britain]]
[[Category:1828 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Meridians (geography)]]
[[Category:Navigation organizations]]