![]() ![]() The scientific establishment throughout Europe - from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton - had mapped the heavens in it pursuit of a celestial answer. The quest for a solution had occupied scientists for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, England's parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (£20,000, or approximately $12 million in today's currency) to anyone whose method or device proved successful and reproducible. ![]() Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. ![]() Includes bibliographical references and indexĪnyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day - and had been for centuries. ![]()
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