Description: In the first book-length history of the Board of Longitude, a distinguished team of historians of science bring to life one of Georgian Britain's most important scientific institutions. Having developed in the eighteenth century following legislation offering rewards for methods to determine longitude at sea, the Board came to support the work of navigators, instrument makers, clockmakers and surveyors, and assembled the Nautical Almanac. Utilizing the archives and records of the Board, recently digitised by the same team, the authors shed new light on the Board's involvement in colonial projects, Pacific and Arctic exploration, as well as on innovative practitioners whose work would otherwise be lost to history. This is an invaluable guide to science, state and society in Georgian Britain, a period of dramatic industrial and imperial and technological expansion.
Brief description: Richard Dunn is Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, London.
Review Quotes: 'The path to longitude retains its fascination but, oddly, the Board which oversaw it has lacked a history. This lacuna is amply rectified in this well researched book of essays based on a close scrutiny of the original records. It traverses the beginnings of the Board, its operation and influence and its ultimate demise. Overall, this provides an authoritative account of one of the key institutions which facilitated Britain's long naval and imperial reach.' John Gascoigne, University of New South Wales