Act of Longitude by Queen Anne, 1714

First edition of the first publication of the Longitude Act, which encouraged the discovery of a method of quickly and accurately determining a ship's longitude. An early example of a means adopted by a government for encouraging scientific discovery and progress. This formerly unusual role of government in catalyzing or financing scientific progress is now the commonplace and essential (Grolier/Horblitt). As time passed and no method proved successful, the search for a solution to the longitude problem assumed legendary proportions, on a par with discovering the Fountain of Youth, the secret of perpetual motion, or the formula for transforming lead into gold. The governments of the great maritime nations - including Spain, the Netherlands, and certain city-states of Italy - periodically roiled the fervor by offering jackpot purses for a workable method. The British Parliament, in its famed Longitude Act of 1714, set the highest bounty of all, naming a prize equal to a king's ransom (several million dollars in today's currency) for a Practicable and Useful means of determining longitude (Sobel, p. 8). The Act established the Longitude Board, tasked with evaluating proposals for measuring longitude and awarding prizes. The top prize of £20,000 was reserved for any method that could measure longitude within one half of a degree.