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Nevil Maskelyne, the Nautical Almanac, and G.M.T.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 1985

Derek Howse
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Extract

Early in 1967, a few months before the restored Meridian Building of the Old Royal Observatory was opened to the public by Sir Richard Woolley, the Astronomer Royal, I received a visitor in my office then in the Meridian Building — later, I was to move to the west summer house of Flamsteed House. My visitor was Colonel Humphrey Quill, Royal Marines, Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers that same year and author of the hook John Harrison, the Man who Found Longitude, which has become a standard work. He brought with him some manuscripts written by the subject of this lecture — Nevil Maskelyne, fifth Astronomer Royal, who lived in Flamsteed House for 46 years from 1765, making most of his important astronomical observations in the very building in which Col. Quill and I were sitting.

Type
The Eva G. R. Taylor Lecture
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , May 1985 , pp. 159 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1985

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References

1 Humphrey, Quill (1966). John Harrison, the Man who Found Longitude (London)Google Scholar.

2 Transferred to RGO, Herstmonceux, 1975. Now RGO 4/320: 8, 9 and 11.

3 RGO 4/320: 8.

4 See the etching ‘Domus Obscurata ad Maculas, Eclipsque Solares Excipiendas peropportuna’, reproduced in Howse, Derek, Francis Place and the Early History of Greenwich Observatory (New York, 1975)Google Scholar, plate Xa.

5 Bradley's Royal Warrant, RGO 4/320: 3.

6 Act 12 Anne c.15, An Act Jor Providing a Publick Reward Jor such Person or Persons as shall Discover the Longitude at Sea.

7 Maskelyne, N., (1763). The British Mariner's Guide, containing Complete and Easy Instructions Jor the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea… (London)Google Scholar.

8 NM to Shepherd, 15 Oct. 1764. NMM PST/76/130–3.

9 Ibid.

10 NM to Shepherd, 20 Oct. 1764. The Observatory (Nov. 1911), 396–7.

11 Royal Warrant, 9 Feb. 1765. WRO 1390/3.

12 A/C 1/4.

13 NM to Edmund Maskelyne, 15 May 1766, NMM PST/76/104–6.

14 Observing book, 1762–5, RGO 3/14.

15 The Principles of Mr. Harrison s Time-keeper, with Plates of the Same… (London, 1767).

16 Maskelyne, N., (1767). An Account of the Going of Mr. John Harrison's watch at the Royal Observatory, from May 6th. 1766 to March 4th 1767… (London)Google Scholar.

17 Shepherd, A., (1772). Tables for Correcting the Apparent distance of the Moon and a star from the effects of Refraction and Parallax, p. iv (Cambridge)Google Scholar.

18 Harrison, John. Remarks on a Pamphlet lately published by the Rev. Mr. Maskelyne…

19 Quill, op. cit. 1

20 Act 13 Geo.III c.77.

21 Forbes, , Eric, G. (1971). ‘Who discovered longitude at sea?’, Sky and Telescope, 6Google Scholar.

22 Royal Society Journal Book.

23 Autobiographical notes, RGO 4/320: 10, fo.2.

24 Howse, D. and Hutchinson, B. (1969). The Clocks and Watches of Captain James Cook, 1769–1969, Antiquarian Horology reprint, p. 194.

25 Cook to Stephens, 22 March 1775. Beaglehole, J. (ed.), The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure 1772–1775 (Cambridge, 1959), p. 692Google Scholar.

26 Act 14 Geo.III c.66 of 1774.

27 Gould, , Rupert, T. (1923). The Marine Chronometer, p. 77, (London)Google Scholar.

28 Royal Warrant, op. cit. 13

29 Phil. Trans. 65 (1775), 495–9.

30 ‘An Account of Observations made on the Mountain Schehallien for finding its Attraction’, ibid, 500–42. The final computations were done by Charles Hutton, Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, who concluded in 1778 that the mean density of the Earth was 4·5 that of water. Cavendish's torsion balance determination of 1798 was 5·448, close to the currently accepted value of 5·52. See Leadstone, G. S., ‘Maskelyne's Schehallien experiment of 1774’, Physics Education 9, (1974), 452—8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Howse and Hutchinson, op. cit.,24 pp. 281–98.

32 ?Parker to ?Banks, early 1784. RS MS MM.7.157.

33 Shepherd, op. cit. 19

34 Maskelyne, , Nevil, (1776). Astronomical Observations made at The Royal Observatory at Greenwich By the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne… 1 (London)Google Scholar. He made the suggestion in a memorial presented to the Royal Society on 9 June 1763.

35 NM to Cook, 22 Dec. 1791, reprinted in Maskelyne, N., An Answer to a Pamphlet entitled “A Narrative of Facts”, lately published by Mr. Thomas Madge, junior… (London, 1792), pp. 37—8.Google Scholar

36 MB 5.

37 A/C 1/13–14.

38 Ibid. 49–50.

39 NM to Watson, jr, 4 Apr. 1781. RAS MS W 1/13. M. 14.

40 MB 7/15v and 8/16r.

41 Evans, , Thomas, , (London, 1810), Juvenile Tourist pp. 332—43.Google Scholar

42 Forbes, , Eric, G., vol. 1 (London, 1975), Greenwich Observatory, p. 150Google Scholar. Maskelyne records going to Calais himself. A/C 1/91.

43 This became commonplace in the nineteenth century. For example, in 1844 forty chronometers were sent sixteen times backwards and forwards between Altona near Hamburg and Greenwich.

44 Dawes Point at the south end of Sydney Harbour Bridge was originally called Point Maskelyne.

45 In the event, the mural circle proved not capable of fulfilling both functions and a new transit instrument was mounted in 1816.

46 Hardy to ?Margaret Maskelyne, 7 June 1820. NMM PST /76/125.

47 Maskelyne, N., Greenwich Observations, Transits, p. 384.

48 WRO 1390 box 9.

49 NM to Andrews, 5 Jan. 1811. RGO 4/149: 50.

50 NM to Vince, 5 Jan. 1811. NMM PST/76/12 1–4.

51 Margaret Maskelyne to Andrews, 7 Feb. 1811. RGO 4/149: 51.

52 Margaret Maskelyne to Lady Booth. NMM PST/76/28 1–4.

53 A/C.

54 MB 8/37v.

55 Ibid.

55 MB 6/18 r.

56a MB7/23v, 27V.

57 Cameron, H. C., Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., P.R.S.: the autocrat of the philosophers (London, 1952), p. 252Google Scholar.

58 Delambre. Translation in Phil. Mag. 42, 183 (July 1813), 11Google Scholar.

59 Howse, , Derek, , Greenwich Time and the Discovery of the Longitude (Oxford, 1980), p. 141Google Scholar.

60 Taylor, E.G.R., The Haven-finding An (London, etc., augmented edition 1971), p. 263Google Scholar.