How an eighteenth-century hoax has taken in Dava Sobel and other historians.
Most people know something of the events in 1714
when the British government instituted a prize
for the discovery of a successful way to find
longitude at sea. The aim was to reduce the heavy
toll of shipwrecks caused by the crude
navigational method of dead reckoning. Dava Sobel
gave new life to this episode in her bestselling
book, Longitude: The true story of a lone genius
who solved the greatest scientific problem of his
time (1995), which inspired the widely viewed
television programme Lost at Sea (aired in 1998).
After these came a feature film directed by
Charles Sturridge in 1999, starring Michael
Gambon and Jeremy Irons. All these versions place
at their centre the heroic figure of John
Harrison and his struggles to perfect a clock
which would finally carry off the prize of
£20,000. Meanwhile, an early rival who figures in
the tale has gone down in history as another
projector from Yorkshire, named Jeremy Thacker.
Unfortunately Thacker never existed and his proposal now emerges as a hoax.
<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5136819.ece>Link
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