The first part of collection is comprised of papers concerning the internal affairs of the Board of Longitude, including the granting of awards, accounts, minutes, committee papers, petitions and memorials, the loan of instruments, publications and the payment of staff. These are followed by a wide range of papers relating to the Board's work, concerning clocks, chronometers and other instruments; longitude and latitude; magnetic variation; schemes and inventions; tables; pendulum experiments; longitude stations; tides and trade winds; general astronomical topics; and perpetual motion and circle quadrature. The final papers relate to voyages of discovery, and include log books, journals and observations.