Papers of the Board of Longitude : Papers on the loan of instruments

Papers of the Board of Longitude

This volume of lists and correspondence gives us a rare glimpse into the practicalities of running the Board of Longitude. It deals with the day-to-day considerations of the books and instruments that were under the Board's supervision, and links nicely into material in other volumes, including receipts for the instruments in <a href='/view/MS-RGO-00014-00019'> (RGO 14/19)</a>, and correspondence in <a href='/view/MS-RGO-00014-00014'> (RGO 14/14)</a> regarding publications gifted by the Board. Here we find <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(141);return false;'> lists (RGO 14/13:93r)</a> of who should receive those publications.Partly the volume reads like a catalogue of the whole of the Board of Longitude archives, except that papers are grouped in 'bundles' rather than volumes. There are <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(125);return false;'> careful indexes (RGO 14/13:87r)</a> of the printed books and manuscript papers stored in the Board's warehouse, mostly by year, which includes correspondence, accounts, petitions, receipts, and reports. One such <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(21);return false;'> document (RGO 14/13:11r)</a> is a list sent by Sir Harold Parker , some months after he had handed over as Secretary to the Board, detailing the books, instruments and manuscripts that had been under his care. This gives us one idea of the somewhat slapdash nature of the Board's organisation even in the 1790s, which meant that Parker was still handing over to George Gilpin months later. Similarly the <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'> minute that opens the volume (RGO 14/13:5r)</a> shows us the University of Cambridge employing extra staff in order to deal with papers stored there by the Board and therefore retrieve the much-needed space for the University.Mostly, the volume shows us the processes of the Board administrating and loaning instruments. Again we see somewhat sporadic organisation, explaining the background to the <a href='/view/MS-RGO-00014-00003/47'> minute note in Volume 3 (RGO 14/3:24r)</a>, in which the Board resolved to take a proper inventory of its instruments. In a <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(25);return false;'> letter (RGO 14/13:13r)</a> in 1817, Stephen Lee, secretary to the Royal Society, wrote to Thomas Hurd [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;authority=agent-178430;makerReference=agent-178430'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>], then secretary to the Board of Longitude, listing the items that had been removed from their shared warehouse at the request of the Astronomer Royal John Pond, and stating his anxiety that he had received no receipt for this. Similarly, there are <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(45);return false;'> rough and neat lists of instruments (RGO 14/13:21r)</a> that the Board had minuted as lent out, but which they had no record of having been returned.Lastly, the volume deals with instrument loans made by the Board. We see various lists made by the then Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/379043.html'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>], one <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(57);return false;'> itemising instruments (RGO 14/13:27r)</a> at the Royal Greenwich Observatory that should be sent with the astronomer on HMS Investigator [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;authority=vessel-320960;vesselReference=vessel-320960'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>], and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(261);return false;'> lists of what (RGO 14/13:155r)</a>William Gooch, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(271);return false;'> what (RGO 14/13:161r)</a>William Dawes, and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(289);return false;'> what (RGO 14/13:171r)</a>James Inman took on their respective voyages, signed by them as a receipt. Most poignantly, correspondence between the secretary George Gilpin and William Wales, discusses what time-keepers the Board owned, including a note from Gilpin that, 'It has occurred to me since writing the above that Kendal's 1st Watch [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/79183.html'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>] was lent to Capt. Bligh [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/107428.html'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>] & was lost when the Mutiny [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/149152.html'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>] took place.'Katy Barrett History and Philosophy of Science University of Cambridge