Skip to main content

Cambridge University Libraries are providing a blend of online and controlled in-person services. Please see our website for more details.

An incomplete series of fair minutes of meetings of the Board of Longitude, 1765 - 1828

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0180/RGO 14/4: 4-214

Scope and Contents

Regarding the production of ephemerides; the publication of Tobias Mayer's lunar tables; the printing of the 'Nautical Almanac'; the employment of computers; trials of new astronomical and nautical instruments; William Garrard's method of reducing lunar distances; E. Nayler's new theory of the variation of compasses; elections to the Board of Longitude; the publication of tables of logarithms; the establishment of an observatory at the Cape of Good Hope; the voyage of HMS 'Hecla' and HMS 'Griper' in search of a north-west passage and questionnaires to be answered by officers of these ships; the sale of rewards for Arctic discoveries; the appointment of John Herschel to the Board; the selection of the Royal Observatory as the depot for chronometers; Jones' mural circle for the Cape Observatory; the publication of a book of tables of precession observation, solar nutation and proper motion over a period of four years for the sixty principle stars, with a separate table for the lunar nutation; and a catalogue of double stars.

Dates

  • 1765 - 1828

Conditions Governing Access

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Extent

211 folio(s) (211 ff.) : Paper

Language of Materials

English