The
petition was referred to a committee, which took evidence on the
subject. It appears that Sir Isaac Newton, with his
extraordinary sagacity, hit the mark in his report. "One is," he
said, "by a watch to keep time exactly; but, by reason of the
motion of a ship, and the variation of heat and cold, wet and
dry, and the difference of gravity in different latitudes, such a
watch hath not yet been made."
An Act was however passed in the Session of 1714, offering a very
large public reward to inventors: 10,000L. to any one who should
discover a method of determining the longitude to one degree of a
great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. if it determined
the same to two-thirds of that distance, or 40 geographical
miles; and 20,000L. if it determined the same to one-half of the
same distance, or 30 geographical miles. Commissioners were
appointed by the same Act, who were instructed that "one moiety
or half part of such reward shall be due and paid when the said
commissioners, or the major part of them, do agree that any such
method extends to the security of ships within 80 geographical
miles of the shore, which are places of the greatest danger; and
the other moiety or half part when a ship, by the appointment of
the said commissioners, or the major part of them, shall actually
sail over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such port in the
West Indies as those commissioners, or the major part of them,
shall choose or nominate for the experiment, without losing the
longitude beyond the limits before mentioned.
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