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The need for better navigational accuracy for increasingly longer oceanic voyages had been an issue explored by many European nations for centuries before the passing of the Longitude Act in England in 1714. Monarchies in Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands offered financial incentives for solutions to the problem of longitude as early as 1598. Addressing the problem of longitude fell, primarily, into three categories: terrestrial, celestial, and mechanical.〔 This included detailed atlases, lunar charts, and timekeeping mechanisms at sea. It is postulated by scholars that the economic gains and political power to be had in oceanic exploration, and not scientific and technological curiosity, is what resulted in the swift passing of the Longitude Act of 1714 and the largest and most famous reward, the Longitude Prize being offered. ==Establishing the Prize== In the early 1700s, a series of very public and very tragic maritime disasters occurred, including the wrecking of a squadron of naval vessels on the Scilly Islands in 1707. Around the same time, mathematician Thomas Axe decreed in his will that a £1,000 prize be awarded for promising research into finding “true longitude” and that annual sums be paid to scholars involved in making corrected world maps. In 1713, when the Whiston-Ditton longitude proposal was presented at the opening of the session of Parliament, a general understanding of the longitude problem prompted the formation of a parliamentary committee and the swift passing of the Longitude Act on July 8, 1714.〔 Within this act, is detailed three prizes based on levels of accuracy, which are the same accuracy requirements used for the Axe prize, set by Whiston and Ditton in their petition, and recommended by Sir Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley to the parliamentary committee. An additional requirement for the prize money was at least one ocean-trial from England to the West-Indies. * £20,000 – highest prize offered for being able to determine a ship’s longitude within ½ degree, requiring sustained accuracy within two seconds in any twenty-four period maintained under the conditions of an ocean voyage * £15,000 – second highest prize offered requiring accuracy within 2/3 degree * £10,000 – lowest prize offered requiring accuracy within 1 degree, which is a span of 60 nautical miles The parliamentary committee also established the Board of Longitude. This panel of adjudicators would review proposed solutions and were also given authority to grant up to £2,000 for promising projects that did not entirely fulfill the terms of the prize levels, but that were still found worthy of encouragement.〔 The exact terms of the requirements for the prizes would later be contended by several recipients, including John Harrison. Ultimately, the £20,000 prize was not awarded to anyone, though John Harrison came closest with a series of payments totaling £23,065. The Board of Longitude remained in existence for more than 100 years. When it was officially disbanded in 1828, an excess of £100,000 had been disbursed.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Longitude Rewards」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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