Time and Time Again: Determination of longitude at sea in the 17th Century
... Among the most promising proposals whose development was taken forward to practical sea trials (Davids, 2008: 446) was Jarichs van der Ley's improved technique of 'dead reckoning', which was taken on a "voyage of the experiment" in 1618. Later that century, a number of Huygens' marine timepieces were tested on sea trials undertaken as part of regular VOC voyages to the Cape of Good Hope in the 1680s and 1690s (e.g., de Grijs, 2017). In the 1730s, the VOC also undertook a number of sea trials of instruments for the improved measurement of speed and leeway invented by Leendert Vermase and Jasper van der Mast. ...
... The announcement of the first Dutch longitude prize in April 1600 led to a flurry of activity, with numerous 'projectors', from genuine scientist-scholars to lunatics and those keen to cash in on the generous cash prize clamouring for the attention of the governing bodies. This is reminiscent of what happened in Spain around the same time (de Grijs, 2020b) and of what would happen following the establishment of the British Longitude Prize a century later (de Grijs, 2017). ...
... (Buyse, 2017: 27) The 'time measurer' Galileo had in mind was likely a forerunner to the pendulum clock (Galilei, 1639). The pendulum clock was first developed later in the seventeenth century, partly on the basis of Galileo's descriptions (e.g., de Grijs, 2017): "More likely they were a form of vibration counter, consisting of a pendulum bob suspended on a string which was given impulse manually or by clockwork" (Bedini, 1991: 18). In this sense, Galileo's proposal as supplied to the States General was substantially different from his earlier proposals submitted to the Spanish authorities. ...
The late-sixteenth century witnessed a major expansion of Dutch shipping activity from northern European waters to the Indian Ocean and beyond. At a time when the Renaissance had just arrived on the North Sea's shores, scientist-scholars, navigators and merchants alike realised the urgent need for and potential profitability of developing a practical means of longitude determination at sea. Under pressure of early adopters, including Petrus Plancius and Simon Stevin, on 1 April 1600 the national government of the Dutch Republic announced a generous longitude prize, which would see gradual increases in value over the next two centuries. In addition to leading thinkers like Galileo and Christiaan Huygens, the Low Countries spawned major talent in pursuit of a longitude solution. Their solutions reached well beyond applications of the ephemerides of Jupiter's moons or the development of a stable marine timepiece. Studies of the Earth's magnetic field, lunar distances, astronomical observations combined with simple trigonometry and the design of a "golden compass" all pushed the nation's maritime capabilities to a higher level. Dutch efforts to "find East and West" were unparalleled and at least as insightful as those pursued elsewhere on the continent.
... Deshayes is not mentioned again in the expedition's reports. However, the scientific aspects of the voyage were not altogether successful (de Grijs, 2017), so that Deshayes may simply not have obtained any worthwhile longitude determinations. Nevertheless, the expedition resulted in a number of important cartographic measurements, particularly that of the latitude of the French fort at Pentagoûët (present-day Castine, Maine) of 44°23'20" North, only 5" from the correct value, 44°23'25" North. ...
... Deshayes' efforts in determining accurate positions were part of a larger French scheme driven by Cassini and the Académie, once again combining scientific exploration with the State's practical needs. King Louis XIV had appointed teams of astronomers to map his kingdom using observations of stellar occultations or eclipses (de Grijs, 2017). Jean Picard (1620-1682), founding member of the Académie, and Philippe de la Hire (1640-1718) determined the coordinates of the French Atlantic coast between 1679 and 1681, which led to significantly revised maps. ...
... As a consequence, the length of the seconds pendulum should become shorter as one travels toward lower latitudes. Its length in Paris was well-established (de Grijs, 2017). A number of leading scholars associated with the Académie-including Huygens, Richer and Picard-had measured highly consistent values for the pendulum's one-second fall length in Paris (Harper, 2011: Table 5.2). ...
Jean Deshayes, a teacher of mathematics in his native France, single-handedly put Qu\'ebec on the map, literally. An accomplished astronomer, he used the lunar eclipse of 10--11 December 1685 to determine the settlement's longitude to unprecedented (although most likely fortuitously high) accuracy for the times. Deshayes contributed invaluable practical insights to the most important contemporary scientific debate---the discussion regarding the shape and size of the Earth---which still resonate today. Over the course of several decades and equipped with an increasingly sophisticated suite of surveyor's instruments, his careful scientific approach to hydrography and cartography of Canada's Saint Lawrence River is an excellent example of the zeitgeist associated with the 17th century's "Scientific Revolution."
... At that time the development of international maritime trade made it essential to know how to accurately determine one's latitude and especially longitude (see de Grijs, 2017). ...
... Be that as it may, in the early sixteenth century the key problem of the determination of one's accurate position at sea, specifically of one's longitude, had not yet been resolved (e.g., de Grijs, 2017). Irrespective of this crucial shortcoming, the original Treaty of Tordesillas, as well as the updated version of 1506, identified the demarcation line in terms of the number of leagues West of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands-that is, in the open ocean, where geographic position measurements were all but impossible using contemporary tools. ...
... A request recently addressed to us on the part of our very dear son in Christ, Emmanuel, the illustrious, King of Portugal and of the Algarves, stated that inasmuch as some time ago the permission was granted by the Apostolic See to John, of illustrious memory, King of Portugal and the Algarves, to the effect that the said John and any King of Portugal and of the Algarves for the time being, should be permitted to navigate the ocean sea, or seek out the islands, ports and mainlands lying within the said sea, and to retain those found for himself, and to all others it was forbidden under penalty of excommunication, … from presuming to navigate the sea in this way against the will of the aforesaid king, or to occupy the islands and places found there; and inasmuch as between the aforesaid King John, on the one part, and our very dear son in Christ, Ferdinand, at that time the illustrious King of Aragon, Castile and León, on the other part, in regard to certain islands called Las Antillas, which had been discovered and occupied by the aforesaid king, … came to a certain honourable agreement, convention and compact, whereby, among other things, they resolved that the Kings of Portugal and the Algarves should have the right to navigate the said sea within certain specified limits and seek out and take possession of newly discovered islands and that the Kings … of Castile and Leon should have the same right within certain other specified limits … Wherefore the aforesaid King Emmanuel has humbly besought us to deign to add the authority of the apostolic confirmation to the aforesaid agreement, convention and compact for the purpose of establishing them more firmly … (Davenport, 1917) Be that as it may, in the early sixteenth century the key problem of the determination of one's accurate position at sea, specifically of one's longitude, had not yet been resolved (e.g., de Grijs, 2017). Irrespective of this crucial shortcoming, the original Treaty of Tordesillas, as well as the updated version of 1506, identified the demarcation line in terms of the number of leagues West of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands-that is, in the open ocean, where geographic position measurements were all but impossible using contemporary tools. ...
Following Columbus' voyages to the Americas, Castilian (Spanish) and Portuguese rulers engaged in heated geopolitical competition, which was eventually reconciled through a number of treaties that divided the world into two unequal hemispheres. However, the early-sixteenth-century papal demarcation line was poorly defined. Expressed in degrees with respect to a vague reference location, determination of longitude at sea became crucial in the nations' quest for expanding spheres of influence. In Spain, King Philip II and his son, Philip III, announced generous rewards for those whose solutions to the longitude problem performed well in sea trials and which were suitable for practical implementation. The potential reward generated significant interest from scientist-scholars and opportunists alike. The solutions proposed and the subset taken to sea provided important physical insights that still resonate today. None of the numerous approaches based on compass readings ("magnetic declination") passed the exacting sea trials, but the brightest sixteenth-century minds already anticipated that lunar distances and the use of marine timepieces would eventually enable more precise navigation. With most emphasis in the English-language literature focused on longitude solutions developed in Britain, France and the Low Countries, the earlier yet groundbreaking Spanish efforts have, undeservedly, largely been forgotten. Yet, they provided a firm basis for the development of an enormous "cottage industry" that lasted until the end of the eighteenth century.
... Yet, despite the concerted efforts of 17th-century heavyweights like Bruce, Huygens, Moray, Hooke, and their contemporaries, pendulum clocks never became viable marine timekeepers. Eventually, spring-driven watches took centre stage, although we would need to wait another century (de Grijs, 2017) 45 before the unassuming English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776) managed to find a workable solution to solving the perennial longitude problem through application of innovative metallurgical techniques. Nevertheless, Bruce's innovations stood the test of time and so his little-known Scottish inventions have since been widely incorporated in subsequent designs of generations of pendulum clocks. ...
The mid-17th century saw unprecedented scientific progress. With the Middle Ages well and truly over, the Scientific Revolution had begun. However, scientific advancement does not always proceed along well-planned trajectories. Chance encounters and sheer luck have important roles to play, although more so in the 17th century than today. In this context, the Scottish businessman and erstwhile royalist exile, Alexander Bruce (1629--1680), found himself in the right place at the right time to contribute significant innovations to the nascent pendulum clock design championed by contemporary natural philosophers such as Christiaan Huygens, Robert Moray, and Robert Hooke as the solution to the perennial 'longitude problem.' Bruce's fledgling interests in science and engineering were greatly boosted by his association with the brightest minds of the newly established Royal Society of London. From an underdog position, his innovations soon outdid the achievements of the era's celebrated scholars, enabling him to conduct some of the first promising sea trials of viable marine timekeepers. International collaboration became international rivalry as time went on, with little known Scottish inventions soon becoming part of mainstream clock designs.
... Finding longitude was a more taxing problem, as it depended upon accurate time-keeping (de Grijs, 2017;Higgitt and Dunn, 2014). ...
Between 1768 and 1778 England's premier maritime explorer, James Cook, made three much-published and very successful expeditions to the Pacific. Astronomy played a vital role in navigation and coastal cartography, and consequently there were astronomers on all three Pacific expeditions. On the final voyage Cook would lose his life in Hawaii, but not before exploring the northwestern coast of the American continent and visiting Nootka Sound on the western shores of Vancouver Island. In this paper we review the challenge of accurately determining latitude and longitude in the eighteenth century; provide biographical information about the three astronomers on Cook's Third Voyage (Cook, King and Bayly); examine the range of astronomical instruments used during the Voyage, and the associated instrument-makers; describe the various types of astronomical observations made for latitude and longitude determinations; and review the observations that were made at Nootka Sound during the 3-week stopover of the Resolution and Discovery in April 1778.
In the first book-length history of the Board of Longitude, a distinguished team of historians of science bring to life one of Georgian Britain's most important scientific institutions. Having developed in the eighteenth century following legislation offering rewards for methods to determine longitude at sea, the Board came to support the work of navigators, instrument makers, clockmakers and surveyors, and assembled the Nautical Almanac. Utilizing the archives and records of the Board, recently digitised by the same team, the authors shed new light on the Board's involvement in colonial projects, Pacific and Arctic exploration, as well as on innovative practitioners whose work would otherwise be lost to history. This is an invaluable guide to science, state and society in Georgian Britain, a period of dramatic industrial and imperial and technological expansion.
During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era. While Western Europe entered an extended period of intellectual decline, Constantinople developed into a rich cultural crossroads between East and West. Yet, Byzantine scholarship in astronomy and geography continued to rely heavily on their ancient Greek heritage, and particularly on Ptolemy’s Geography. Unfortunately, Ptolemy’s choices for his geographic coordinate system resulted in inherent and significant distortions of and inaccuracies in maps centred on the Byzantine Empire. This comprehensive review of Byzantine geographic achievements—supported by a review of astronomical developments pertaining to position determination on Earth—aims to demonstrate why and how, when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Ottoman Empire commenced, Byzantine astronomers had become the central axis in an extensive network of Christians, Muslims and Jews. Their influence remained significant well into the Ottoman era, particularly in the context of geographical applications.
During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era. While Western Europe entered an extended period of intellectual decline, Constantinople developed into a rich cultural crossroads between East and West. Yet, Byzantine scholarship in astronomy and geography continued to rely heavily on their ancient Greek heritage, and particularly on Ptolemy's Geography. Unfortunately, Ptolemy's choices for his geographic coordinate system resulted in inherent and significant distortions of and inaccuracies in maps centred on the Byzantine Empire. This comprehensive review of Byzantine geographic achievements -- supported by a review of astronomical developments pertaining to position determination on Earth -- aims to demonstrate why and how, when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Ottoman Empire commenced, Byzantine astronomers had become the central axis in an extensive network of Christians, Muslims and Jews. Their influence remained significant well into the Ottoman era, particularly in the context of geographical applications.
The voyage of the ‘First Fleet’ from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales was not only a military enterprise, it also had a distinct scientific purpose. Britain’s fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, had selected William Dawes, a promising young Marine with a propensity for astronomical observations, as his protégé. Maskelyne convinced the British Board of Longitude to supply Dawes with a suite of state-of-the-art instruments and allow the young Marine to establish an observatory in the new settlement. With the unexpected assistance of the French Lapérouse expedition, between 1788 and 1791 Dawes established not one but two observatories within a kilometre of Sydney’s present-day central business district. In this chapter we explore the historical record to narrow down the precise location of Dawes’ Observatory. We conclude that the memorial plaque affixed to the Sydney Harbour Bridge an incorrect location. Overwhelming contemporary evidence—maps, charts and pictorial representations—implies that Dawes’ Observatory was located on the northeastern tip of the promontory presently known as The Rocks (formerly Dawes’ Point), with any remains having vanished during the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
On 13 May 1787, a convict fleet of 11 ships left Portsmouth, England, on a 24,000 km, 8-month-long voyage to New South Wales. The voyage would take the ‘First Fleet’ under Captain Arthur Phillip via Tenerife (Canary Islands), the port of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Table Bay at the southern extremity of the African continent and the southernmost cape of present-day Tasmania to their destination of Botany Bay. Given the navigation tools available and the small size of the convoy’s ships, their safe arrival within a few days of one another was a phenomenal achievement. This was particularly so, because they had not lost a single ship and only a relatively small number of crew and convicts had died. Phillip and his crew had only been able to ensure success because of the presence of navigators who were highly proficient in practical astronomy, most notably Lieutenant William Dawes. This chapter explores his educational background and the events leading up to Dawes’ appointment by the Board of Longitude as the convoy’s official astronomer. In addition to Dawes, John Hunter, second captain of the convoy’s flagship H.M.S. Sirius, and Lieutenants William Bradley and Philip Gidley King were also experts in navigation and astronomical longitude determination, proficient at using both chronometers and ‘lunar distance’ measurements. The historical geographic of the First Fleet’s voyage is remarkably accurate, even by today’s standards.
As the European maritime powers expanded their reach beyond north Atlantic coastal waters to distant lands as far away as the East Indies, access to a practical means of maritime navigation in the southern hemisphere became imperative. The first few voyages undertaken by the Dutch East India Company and its predecessor explicitly aimed at compiling star charts and constellations that were only visible south of the Equator, as practical navigation aids. The oldest known star atlas of southern constellations was published in 1603 by Frederick de Houtman. Controversies have plagued de Houtman’s astronomical credentials from their inception, however, with contemporaries variously attributing the early southern star charts to Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser, de Houtman, or even to their tutor Petrus Plancius. The balance of available evidence suggests that Keyser initially led the astronomical observing campaign, ably assisted by de Houtman. Upon Keyser’s untimely death, de Houtman embraced a leading role in compiling astronomical observations for maritime navigation purposes, whereas Plancius most probably led the delineation of the 12 new southern constellations that soon became part and parcel of the nautical consciousness.KeywordsSouthern star chartsSouthern constellationsMaritime navigationFrederick de HoutmanPieter Dirkszoon KeyserPetrus PlanciusDutch East India Company
Navigation over long distances requires precise knowledge of location. The determination of longitude is a problem of great complexity whose resolution required the improvement of astronomical catalogs, of the theory describing the motion of the Moon, the development of new calculation algorithms, especially in spherical trigonometry, and of the technologies needed both to build more accurate measuring instruments and to measure time accurately with mechanical clocks. This goal was achieved by the end of the eighteenth century. Portugal and Spain contributed decisively to this process, especially during their explorations in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to be relieved by other European powers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the Netherlands, France and England. The process required the foundation of new structures to channel the different efforts: academies and national observatories, institutions that are still in force today.KeywordsCartographyCosmographyGeographic explorationLongitude (problem)Scientific navigation
The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of European expansion beyond the confines of the continent were processes based on the vast knowledge accumulated since Antiquity. Part of the Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman knowledge was lost at the beginning of the Middle Ages, but cosmography was partially preserved both in the monasteries and by the Islamic civilization. In fact, it also united the East with the West and made its own contributions to geography and, above all, astronomy. The role of Al-Andalus and its heir states, both Muslim and Christian, was decisive. The translation activity in the different Christian Iberian kingdoms, in which the so-called Schools of Translators of Toledo in the Castile of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries stood out, was extraordinarily active. It was heir to a rich intellectual life and the result of both local and European administrative needs. The Alfonsine Tables, which provided ephemerides for different celestial events, were key in European astronomy and, despite the accumulation of errors over time, were not surpassed until the Contemporary Age. The European expansion towards new geographical horizons began in the fourteenth century, with the discoveries led by Portuguese sailors in the Atlantic islands, seconded by those of other Iberian kingdoms, the French and several city states of the Italian peninsula. Castile disputed with Portugal for supremacy until the signing of several treaties that resulted in the division of the world, including the unknown seas and lands. Ptolemy’s Geography, reintroduced in the West during this competition, was used as a model to incorporate the new discoveries. The southward expansion also propelled the incorporation of the new southern constellations to the celestial globes.KeywordsCartographyCastilian explorationCosmographyGeographic discoveryMapamundiPortuguese explorationSpanish explorationWorld maps
The paper deals with ancient methods of astronavigation and their potential use in finding geographical locations in Ptolemy’s Geographike Hyphegesis. Further, it describes the systematic errors in these methods and suggests how to correct them. The results include a new map which compares the locations of Ptolemy’s sites after removing the errors with their real locations. Subsequently, significant ancient locations according to Ptolemy’s list of noteworthy cities are identified on the map. In some cases, we presume that they were located on the map using astronavigation. The results of this Study imply that Ptolemy may have adopted a comparatively regular network of points from some older authors which was the basis of his extensive work.
The attempts to find a solution to the longitude problem have been in the forefront of the discussion about the history of navigation in recent decades. However, pamphlets or serious works dealing with the problem of longitude in the German language, by German authors and/ or published in the German territories have been previously overlooked. This article examines the numerous German contributions, both serious and cranky, that were produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The early works on longitude in the German territories, most of them published by authors far from the sea and in general not connected to shipping, did not have any impact on German navigational literature, even when written by such eminent scientists as Leibniz and Euler. They can be viewed today, though, as another example of how scientific and practical problems were discussed and worked on in wider European scientific circles.
High-level Chinese cartographic developments predate European innovations by several centuries. Whereas European cartographic progress -- and in particular the search for a practical solution to the perennial "longitude problem" at sea -- was driven by persistent economic motivations, Chinese mapmaking efforts responded predominantly to administrative, cadastral and topographic needs. Nevertheless, contemporary Chinese scholars and navigators, to some extent aided by experienced Arab navigators and astronomers, developed independent means of longitude determination both on land and at sea, using a combination of astronomical observations and timekeeping devices that continued to operate adequately on pitching and rolling ships. Despite confusing and speculative accounts in the current literature and sometimes overt nationalistic rhetoric, Chinese technical capabilities applied to longitude determination at sea, while different in design from European advances owing to cultural and societal circumstances, were at least on a par with those of their European counterparts.
Although governments across Europe had realised the need to incentivise the development of practically viable longitude solutions as early as the late-sixteenth century, the English government was late to the party. An sense of urgency among the scientific community and maritime navigators led to the establishment of a number of longitude awards by private donors. The first private British award was bequeathed in 1691 by Thomas Axe, parish clerk of Ottery St. Mary (Devon). Despite the absence of an expenses component and the onerous and costly nature of its terms and conditions, the Axe prize attracted a number of optimistic claimants. Although the award was never disbursed, it may have contributed to the instigation of the government-supported monetary reward associated with the British Longitude Act of 1714. It is likely that the conditions governing the British "Longitude Prize", specifically the required accuracy and the need for sea trials and of disclosure of a successful method's theoretical principles, can be traced back at least in part to the Axe Prize requirements.
Despite frequent references in modern reviews to a seventeenth-century Venetian longitude prize, only a single, circumstantial reference to the alleged prize is known from contemporary sources. Edward Harrison's scathing assessment of the conditions governing the award of an alleged Venetian longitude prize simultaneously disparages the rewards offered by the Dutch States General. However, the latter had long run its course by 1696, the year of the citation, thus rendering Harrison's reference unreliable. Whereas other longitude awards offered by the leading European maritime nations attracted applicants from far and wide, often accompanied by extensive, self-published pamphlets, the alleged Venetian prize does not seem to have been subject to similar hype. The alleged existence of seventeenth-century Venetian award is particularly curious, because the city's fortune was clearly in decline, and longitude determination on the open seas does not appear to have been a priority; the city's mariners already had access to excellent "portolan" charts. It is therefore recommended that authors refrain from referring to a potentially phantom Venetian longitude prize in the same context as the major sixteenth- to eighteenth-century European awards offered by the dominant sea-faring nations.
Longitude determination at sea gained increasing commercial importance in the late Middle Ages, spawned by a commensurate increase in long-distance merchant shipping activity. Prior to the successful development of an accurate marine timepiece in the late-eighteenth century, marine navigators relied predominantly on the Moon for their time and longitude determinations. Lunar eclipses had been used for relative position determinations since Antiquity, but their rare occurrences precludes their routine use as reliable way markers. Measuring lunar distances, using the projected positions on the sky of the Moon and bright reference objects--the Sun or one or more bright stars--became the method of choice. It gained in profile and importance through the British Board of Longitude's endorsement in 1765 of the establishment of a Nautical Almanac. Numerous 'projectors' jumped onto the bandwagon, leading to a proliferation of lunar ephemeris tables. Chronometers became both more affordable and more commonplace by the mid-nineteenth century, signaling the beginning of the end for the lunar distance method as a means to determine one's longitude at sea.
Galileo did not discover gravity, and neither did Newton, however for a variety of reasons their contributions were formalised as the discoverers of gravity and all that came before naive, archaic or backward. Their stories became the legends which all scholars had to learn, and
the precise historical events forgotten and hidden.
The Scientific Revolution sweeping through seventeenth-century Europe led to unprecedented intellectual and scientific insights and high-profile technological developments. Combined with a significant worldwide increase in naval commerce, solving the intractable "longitude problem" became an ever more urgent requirement for the continent's main sea-faring nations. Christiaan Huygens, one of the brightest contemporary natural philosophers, established a fruitful professional collaboration with the Parisian master clockmaker Isaac Thuret. Their joint efforts eventually led to the construction of the first accurate, spring-driven watches. Despite clear evidence of Thuret's intellectual contributions, but in the absence of a robust intellectual property rights framework, Huygens insisted on claiming the invention's sole ownership. Thuret, the celebrated craftsman who had contributed crucial advice to realize the novel watch design, was thus forever--and wholly undeservedly--marked as the "invisible technician."
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