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Hello, in 1714, the British government passed the Longitude Act to reward anyone who

devised reliable means for ships to determine their longitude at sea.

ships could already calculate how far they were north or south, the latitude, but voyaging

across the Atlantic, for example, or to the spice islands east to west was much riskier.

And it took 50 years of individual genius and deep collaborations among astronomers, clockmakers,

mathematicians and mariners in Britain and across Europe for the problem to be resolved.

We'd be to discuss the longitude question on Jim Bennett, keeper emeritus at the Science

Museum, Rebecca Higgit, principal curator of Science and National Museums

Scotland, and Simon Schaffer, professor of history and philosophy of science at the University

of Cambridge.

Simon Schaffer, when did Murray's begin to think they had a problem with longitude?

The problem is very old.

It's important, I think, to start with the idea of what longitude is.

A lines of longitude, which are often called meridians, define one's east or west position

on the earth, those lines run from pole to pole, and east or west are then defined as

a distance from some chosen line.

That model of longitude was ancient, it's discussed and measured out in the work of

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