perform its revolutions precisely in that space of time which the Earth takes to perform her's; it is only required that it should invariably perform it in some known time, and then the constant difference between the length of the one revolution and the other, will appear as so much daily gained or lost by the Watch, which constant gain or loss, is called the rate of its going, and which being added to or deducted from the time shewn by the Watch, will give the true time, and consequently the difference of Longitude.
I shall now proceed to make such remarks as occur to me on perusal of Mr. Maskelyne's Pamphlet.
Mr. Maskelyne begins by telling us that the Board of Longitude, at their Meeting, April 26th, 1766, came to a resolution that my Watch should be tried at the Royal Observatory under his inspection, and that he accordingly received it on the 5th of May, 1766.[1] He then says, 'I most days wound
- ↑ It has been shown in the work that this trial, although nominally the resolution of the Board, does not appear to have been wanted by any persons at the time, except Lord Morton and Dr. Maskelyne, between whom the private business was concocted;—which enabled the latter to exhibit a set off against his own unsuccessful demonstrations by the Moon. We will yet do the other Commissioners, including the consequential Peer, the justice to suppose they were ignorant of what passed at Barbadoes; for, with a knowledge of that scene, to have expected much fairness from the Astronomer Royal, and that he would not be glad to avail himself of any defect he thought
