Essential Information
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Royal Observatory
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08 Nov 2012
In fact, there are just two mentions of a "Longitude Prize" picked up in Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), which includes millions of searchable, digitised pages from over 180,000 books, pamphlets, essays and broadsides. I think we can safely say that it was not a commonplace term at that time. [A Google Books Ngram search on Longitude Prize and longitude prize gives us nothing between 1800 and the 1890s, and has peaks in the 1960s (after Gould's chronometer history and Quill's Harrison biography appeared) and the 1990s (post-Sobel).]
Chasing this reference did, however, lead me to learn about some rather public dissatisfaction with the Board of Longitude and its Nautical Almanac. It also reveals another dispute that hit Nevil Maskelyne.
Both 18th-century uses of the phrase are from Robert Heath's The British palladium; or, Annual miscellany, for the years 1768 and 1774. Heath was an army officer and a mathematician, best known as a frequent contributor to and subsequently the editor of the Ladies' Diary. This was an annual publication that contained useful information, calendars and mathematical puzzles. Many of these puzzles and problems, for which prizes were offered, were set by Heath, who initially marketed the British Palladium as an appendix.
Heath's major publications were, however, Astronomia accurata, or, The Royal Astronomer and Navigator (1760), and The Seaman's Guide to the Longitude (1770). These were both very combative publications, the first accusing James Ferguson and Benjamin Martin of making errors in their astronomical tables, and the second attacking Maskelyne for having failed to publish Tobias Mayer's lunar tables. The tables, which were nearly ready, actually appeared that year, but Maskelyne and Heath subsequently remained on bad terms, disputing mathematics and table production.
From this disputatious context, we can imagine that the use of the term "Longitude prize" was a loaded one. The 1768 instance leads to a piece of Longitude doggerel, which, for your edification, I will reproduce below. The "prize" here produces a rhyme, but also reveals a negative judgement of the competitive, argumentative and money-grabbing nature of the longitude search.
The 1774 instance occurs within a piece that compared the British Nautical Almanac with the French Connaissance des Temps. The sub-title is "The Discoverers of the Longitude discovered" and, as we might guess, was critical of the Board of Longitude. It suggested that public money wasted, noting that as aspects of the British ephemeris appeared to be the same as the French, it must have been copied (I think I'm right to say that it was actually the other way round). The article, attributed to "A Sea Officer", goes on:
The British Computers make as puzzling a Mystery of their mixed and borrowed Calculations (and some no Use at Sea) as of the Longitude they seek. But we, on-board the Navy, make the same Use of the Nautical Ephemeris as we do of a Pack of Cards or the Back-gammon Tables; to pass an idle Hour or to kill Time! For, as we find none is paid for chacing the Longitude-Prize but Longitude Schemers and Projectors, (for whose Profit we are annually out of Pocket by being compelled to buy their Work,) we have long given over the Chace ourselves, without endeavouring to come up with what is not worth our picking up.It was clearly Heath himself: his chief target, Maskelyne, is referred to as "the reverend Superintendent or Commander in Chief of Longitude". It is unsurprising that Maskelyne, in his autobiographical notes, chose to underline the fact that he never benefited financially from taking on the extra work surrounding the publication of the Nautical Almanac. It was not only Harrison who suspected him of being motivated by money. These publications, produced after the date that the "Longitude Prize" is usually considered to have been awarded and the problem solved, are very clear in their view that the solution was still elusive. -----------------------------
LONGITUDE ODE. By Mr. MOONSBY, Tune of the Ass. Or otherwise to be set to MUSIC by Seig. Chrisstiano Longitudiano.
Disputes still arise, For the Longitude Prize, Since Whiston and Ditton are fled; And H__r__n's W___h, Have prov'd a mere Catch, And goes like one out of it's Head, its Head, And goes like one out of it's Head [Note: See Mr. Maskelyne's Observations.] Irwin's Chair lost it's Fame, And has now but a Name, Was surpassed by the Scheme of the Moon; W_tch_l beat up a Breeze, For the Longitude Fees, But to School he was sent away soon, aye soon, But to School he was sent away soon. For D__nth__e of Sages, With one Dozen Pages, That voluminous Scheme quite knock'd down; He shew'd where it err'd, Got his own Scheme preferr'd, Which made the Watchmaker to frown, to frown, Which made the poor Q_____r to frown. Yet D___nth_e, or Ly___n, We cannot rely on, Tho' Cambridge of Oxford takes Place; Parallax and Refraction, Are but a Distraction, Till prov'd to agree with the Case, the Case, Till proved to agree with the Case. The Palladium Brother Has gone little further, [Note: See p.53, & Suppt to Royal Astron. & Navigator, p.8] Till his Theory and Practice unite: Then, by Observation, He can serve his Nation, Without his being a Bite, a Bite, Without his being a Bite. Of the Longitude Hoard, Which is rul'd by the Board, No Em___rs__n ever yet shar'd; And the Nautical Nac, Is but a fam'd Crack, Where a Halley yet never appear'd, appear'd, Where a Halley yet never appear'd. Of Cambridge and Lyon, And Oxford, cry fye on! No Longitude yet has been found; The learned Professors, Have all been Aggressors, And M__sk__ly__ne's only renown'd, renown'd, And M__sk__ly__ne's only renown'd!(I'll admit that there are a few references there that I haven't yet worked out - all suggestions on these names and allusions are gratefully received!)