The Board of Longitude

Alexi Baker operates the History of Science and Technology collection at Yale University's Peabody Museum. Richard Dunn is Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, London. Rebekah Higgitt is Principal Curator of Science at National Museums Scotland. Simon Schaffer was Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge until 2022 and principal investigator on the AHRC project on the Board of Longitude. Sophie Waring is Director of the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Sailing the oceans and seeking longitude before 1714; 3. Launching the eighteenth-century search for the longitude; 4. The early commissioners in transition; 5. The birth of the Board of Longitude; 6. Time trials: the Board of Longitude and the watchmaking trade, 1770–1821; 7. Manufacturing the Nautical Almanac; 8. Managing, communicating and judging longitude after Harrison, 1774–c.1800; 9. A practical institution weighed down by impractical proposals?; 10. What is an observatory? From the metropolis to the Cape; 11. The death and rebirth of the Board of Longitude; Appendix 1: The 1714 Longitude Act; Appendix 2: The Board of Longitude finances; Appendix 3: Payments from the Board of Longitude to John Harrison.

'This volume, based on thorough research, has succeeded in providing a much more rounded picture of the work of the Longitude Commissioners than have previous histories of the subject which have often focused on the role of John Harrison and his marine timekeepers. Both the excellent introduction and the individual essays examine the history behind the creation of the Longitude Commissioners and show that the Board ranged much more widely than the consideration of marine timekeepers. Besides its value to those interested in the history of navigation and exploration, the study examines the gradual expansion of government activity in many areas of innovation.' Gloria Clifton, Royal Museums Greenwich