Tobias Mayer's Claim for the Longitude Prize: A Study in 18th Century Anglo-German Relations

This paper describes the historical background to the Göttingen Professor Tobias Mayer's bid under the terms of the Act 12 Queen Anne, cap. XX (1714) to obtain a reward for having constructed lunar tables of unprecedented accuracy (to about ± ½′) which promised to make both useful and practicable the lunar-distance method of finding longitude at sea. Parliament's decision in 1765 to award £3000 to Mayer's heirs marked the end of an eleven-year period of lively correspondence conducted on the latter's behalf between Professor Johann David Michaelis, Secretary of Hanoverian Affairs in Göttingen, and William Philip Best, one of George III's Privy Secretaries in London. The Nautical Almanac came into existence as a direct consequence of the success of these diplomatic negotiations.