board of longitude

The Board of Longitude was a British Government body formed in 1714 to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea. Its establishment was largely propelled by the 1707 grounding of Vice-Admiral Clowdisley Shovell's fleet off the Isles of Scilly. The Board gathered the greatest scientific minds of its day to work on the problem, including Sir Isaac Newton, and also put up prizes for those who could demonstrate a working device: the massive sums of 10,000 British pounds for a method that could determine longitude to within 60 nautical miles, 15,000 for one that could determine it within 40, and 20,000 pounds if the method could determine longitude within 30 nautical miles.

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