Article ID: CBB718271944

Monteiro da Rocha and the international debate in the 1760s on astronomical methods to find the longitude at sea: his proposals and criticisms to Lacaille’s lunar-distance method (2022)

unapi

In the 1760s, the international debate on the solution to determining longitude at sea is at its acme. Two solutions emerge, the mechanical and the astronomical ones. The Portuguese mathematician and astronomer José Monteiro da Rocha (1734–1819) is well aware of that debate. For him, Harrison’s No. 4 marine timekeeper cannot be seen as a solution. The desirable solution could only be astronomical. In a manuscript from c. 1765, which unfortunately he fails to publish, Monteiro da Rocha is very critical of Lacaille's lunar-distance method (1759) and proposes another one. In this paper, we intend to analyse Monteiro da Rocha’s criticisms and proposals, trying to understand how this manuscript fits into the international longitude debate and the Portuguese scientific scenario at the time. Concurrently, we will re-examine the classical historiography around the English vs. French priority proposal of the lunar-distance method, purging it from its mythologies to shift it towards a more open, less linear history.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB718271944/

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Authors & Contributors
Spelda, Daniel
Figueiredo, Fernando B.
Grijs, Richard de
Ampollini, Ilaria
Köberer, Wolfgang
Ziller Camenietzki, Carlos
Concepts
Astronomy
Navigation
Controversies and disputes
Historiography
Longitude and latitude
Comets; meteors; meteorites
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
16th century
Places
France
Paris (France)
South America
Netherlands
Spain
Portugal
Institutions
East India Company (English)
Royal Society of London
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