Topic description and stories

Title page of Jane Squire's proposal for determining longitude

The lady of the longitude

30 Nov 2014

In 1714, the British Parliament offered large rewards for finding longitude at sea. Men around the world submitted schemes but only one woman, Jane...

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The longitude problem: 300-year-old archive opened to the world

18 Jul 2013

It was the conundrum that baffled some of the greatest and most eccentric experts of the 18th century - and captivated the British public during an...

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