Had we of Archimedes’s Lumber, Enough to make a Chair for Slumber, We’d find by Lines in Cucumber Longitude.
A Hymn to the Chair (1732)
Fig. 1 – A summary of the 1714 Longitude Act circulated as a flyer
{Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam}
Projectors in public
Within days of royal assent being granted, details of the Longitude Act appeared in newspapers and periodicals, with abridged versions circulating as flyers (Fig. 1 (#litres_trial_promo)). The public response was just as rapid. Some longitude schemes had been published before, but the number increased dramatically and older proposals were quickly republished. Generally they repeated the known contenders: magnetic variation; marine timekeepers; improved methods of dead reckoning; and astronomy. However, as the newly appointed Commissioners of Longitude knew, the basic theories were largely sound. It was detailed solutions to the practical problems of being on a ship that they were looking for.
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