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longitude

(page created)
Revision 212 · 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC
atlas import import · claude-opus-5-5
“Imported from content/11-engineering.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).”

Status and infobox

Source +26 −0

+---
+title: Longitude at sea
+kind: problem
+status: solved
+tier: V3
+year: 1714
+authors: the Longitude Act offers £20,000
+statement: How can a ship at sea determine its longitude reliably?
+space: machines
+---
 
+Parliament set a prize for a method accurate to half a degree, after naval disasters caused by navigation errors. Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker, built a watch that kept time through storms and temperature swings. The Board of Longitude, favoring the astronomical method of lunar distances, kept changing the test, and Harrison was paid in full only after appealing to King George III and Parliament. It is the founding example of a prize for an open problem, and of what goes wrong when the verifier is not fixed in advance.
+ 
+*Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.*
+ 
+Posed 1714, the Longitude Act offers £20,000. Closed 1761–1773, John Harrison's marine chronometer H4.
+ 
+## Prize
+ 
+£20,000 under the Longitude Act, paid in part
+ 
+## Sources
+ 
+- [Wikipedia: Longitude prize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_prize)
+- [Wikipedia: John Harrison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison)
+ 
+[[Space:machines|Machines that move]] · [[Continent:engineering|Engineering]]

Revision 212 as rendered

Parliament set a prize for a method accurate to half a degree, after naval disasters caused by navigation errors. Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker, built a watch that kept time through storms and temperature swings. The Board of Longitude, favoring the astronomical method of lunar distances, kept changing the test, and Harrison was paid in full only after appealing to King George III and Parliament. It is the founding example of a prize for an open problem, and of what goes wrong when the verifier is not fixed in advance.

Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.

Posed 1714, the Longitude Act offers £20,000. Closed 1761–1773, John Harrison's marine chronometer H4.

Prize

£20,000 under the Longitude Act, paid in part

Sources

Machines that move · Engineering