The Crazy Ideas That Failed to Solve the Longitude Problem
3rd August 2013
Read it. And watch the video.
For decades from 1714, experts and enthusiasts submitted their ideas to the Board of Longitude in the hope of winning a £20,000 prize – worth £1.5m in today’s money.
Now, the full story of attempts to solve the longitude problem is available in Cambridge University’s Digital Library – with documents and drawings online. Here, with Cambridge historian Prof Simon Schaffer, look at some of the ideas that failed, and the timepiece credited with providing the solution.