Longitude Act
| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act for Providing a Publick Reward for such Person or Persons as shall Discover the Longitude at Sea |
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| Citation | 13 Ann. C 14 |
| Dates | |
| Repealed | 1828 |
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Status: Repealed
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Longitude Act was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in July 1714 at the end of the reign of Queen Anne. It established the Board of Longitude and offered monetary rewards (Longitude rewards) for anyone who could find a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. The Act of 1714 was followed by a series of other Longitude Acts that revised or replaced the original.
As transoceanic travel grew in significance, so did the importance of accurate and reliable navigation at sea. Scientists and navigators had been working on the problem of measuring longitude for a long time. While determining latitude was relatively easy, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning to find longitude. This was particularly inaccurate on long voyages without sight of land and could sometimes lead to tragedy, as during the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 which claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 sailors. This brought the problem of measuring longitude at sea into sharp focus once more. Following the Merchants and Seamen Petition, which called for finding an adequate solution and was presented to Westminster Palace in May 1714, the Longitude Act was passed in July 1714.
For details on many of the efforts towards determining the longitude, see History of longitude.
The Longitude Act offered a series of rewards, rather than a single prize. The rewards increased with the accuracy achieved: £10,000 (worth over 1.3 million in 2015) for anyone who could find a practical way of determining longitude at sea to an accuracy of not greater than one degree of longitude (equates to 60 nautical miles (110 km; 69 mi) at the equator). The reward was to be increased to £15,000 if the accuracy was not greater than 40 minutes, and further enhanced to £20,000 if the accuracy was not greater than half a degree. Other rewards were on offer for those who presented methods that worked within 80 geographical miles of the coast (being the most treacherous part of voyages) and for those with promising ideas who needed help to bring them to readiness for trial. Many rewards were paid out over the 114 years of the Board of Longitude's existence.John Harrison received more money than any other individual, with several rewards from the 1730s-1750s, and £10,000 in 1765.
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