A Book Review - The Unwrittten Book of earth Longitude on the earth

In response to the problems of navigation, a number of European maritime powers offered prizes for a method to determine longitude at sea. The initial work was in cataloguing stars and their position, and Flamsteed created a catalogue of 3,310 stars, which formed the basis for future work .While Flamsteed's catalogue was important, it did not in itself provide a solution. In 1714, the British Parliament passed “An Act for providing a public Reward for such Person or Persons as shall discover the Longitude at Sea”, and set up a Board to administer the award. The rewards depended on the accuracy of the method: from £10,000 for an accuracy within one degree of latitude (60 nautical miles at the equator) to £20,000 for accuracy within one-half of a degree.