Remarks on a pamphlet [respecting H.'s chronometer] lately published by the Rev. Mr. Maskelyne, under the authority of the Board of Longitude / By John Harrison.

  • John Harrison
Date:
1767
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on a pamphlet [respecting H.'s chronometer] lately published by the Rev. Mr. Maskelyne, under the authority of the Board of Longitude / By John Harrison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 23.] that by far the greater Part of the Commif- fioners are perfectly innocent of the Treat¬ ment I have met with ; moll: of them are Commiftioners by Virtue of great Employ¬ ments which engage their Time and Atten¬ tion : A Board fo conftituted is continually changing ; and this being a Matter of Sci¬ ence which to many may feem rather ab- ftrufe, it was very naturally left to the Ma¬ nagement of a few of thole Members who Band in the mofl immediate Relation to Sci¬ ence, and whofe Opinions, upon a Bufinefs of this Nature, the reft of the Board had too much Modefty to call in Queftion. How well they have merited that Degree of Confidence is left to the impartial World to determine. To return again to Mr. Maskelyne s A count; He, as I think has been already fbewn, having faid and done every Thing in his Power to the Difhonour and Difcouragement of my Invention, fcruples not to fum up his Opinion of it in the fol¬ lowing Terms: c‘ That Mr. Harrifons Watch cannot be ■c depended upon to keep the Longitude €e within a Degree, in a Weji-India Voyage of fix Weeks, nor to keep the Longitude <£ within Half a Degree for more than a “ Fortnight, and then it muft be kept in a C£ Place where the Thermometer is always “ fome Degrees above freezing: that, in ce cafe the Cold amounts to freezing, the <s Watch cannot be depended upon to keep “ the