Longitude - John Harrison

Great Britain, Laws & Statutes. Anno Regni George III ... tertio. At the Parliament begun ... Nineteenth Day of May ... 1761 ... to the Twenty fifth Day of November, 1762 ... London: Mark Baskett and the Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1762-1763



Folio (12 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.; 310 x 190 mm). 25 chapter titles with woodcut title vignettes; a few light marginal spots, occasional light browning. Old blind-tooled suede, in a salmon cloth drop-box; rubbed and torn.

John, 2nd Earl of Portsmouth (engraved armorial bookplate)

a few light marginal spots, occasional light browning. Old blind-tooled suede, in a salmon cloth drop-box; rubbed and torn.
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A chapter in the long and frustrating saga of Harrison's effort to gain recognition for his marine timekeeper as a method of determining longitude.

Chapter 14 consists of "An Act for the Encouragement of John Harrison, to publish and make known his Invention of a Machine or Watch, for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea." The Act records the initial public reward of £2000 to make experiments in this quest, and a promised reward of £10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 (depending on accuracy) to the discoverer, and that Harrison had been granted £1250, while £500 had been paid to William Whiston for the same purpose. The Act requires that £2000 more be set aside to promote further experiments.

When Harrison learned of the 1714 Longitude Act in 1726, he proceeded to develop a succession of three timepieces of huge size and weight, until in 1760 he produced his fourth, the size of a large pocket watch weighing only three pounds. This was sent on a trial to Jamaica in 1761 which is referred to in the Act: "And whereas the utility of the Invention of the said John Harrison has been proved in a late Voyage to Jamaica, under the Directions of the Commissioners of the Longitude: And whereas the said Commissioners at their meeting on the Seventeenth Day of August last did adjudge, that by the Trial made of the said Instrument, it was found of considerable Use to the Publick, and did thereupon make an Order for the Payment of the Sum of Two thousand five hundred Pounds to the said John Harrison ..." on condition of still another trial and on condition that he publish the techniques and principles employed in its construction so that it may be manufactured. The next trial, which took place in 1764, was so successful that the Board could not believe it and demanded that the timekeeper be dismantled before a committee.

The volume contains 24 other acts of Parliament. Those of particular interest include those concerning the punishment for mutiny and desertion (p. 203), enabling officers of a certain longevity to exercise trades (p. 247), preventing Occasional Freemen [of Corporations] from voting at elections of members to serve for cities and boroughs (p. 367), permitting the import from Ireland of "Stale and Dirty Butter, not fit for eating, commonly called Grease Butter" (p. 435), and encouraging the making of Indico [indigo] in the British Plantations in America (p. 479).