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LXV''!. On the Si/sfem of Prize Chro7iometers at Greenwich. 

 By Caleb Mainspuing. 



To the Editor of the Philosophical Magazine and Annals. 

 Sir, 

 A S your valuable Journal is open to all subjects of general 

 -^ interest and utility, I trust I may be favoured with an op- 

 portunity, through you, of laying before the public some cir- 

 cumstances affecting my own particular case, and which will, 

 no doubt, sooner or later, equally affect many others in my 

 situation. 



You must know then, Sir, that I am a watchmaker by trade, 

 having recently attempted to set up for myself, after serving 

 a seven years apprenticeship to one of the most celebrated 

 in that line. But, unfortunately for me, I cannot succeed : 

 not that there is not encouragement enough for articles of 

 that kind, from the gilt bauble that hangs by the fair lady's 

 side, to the exquisite finish of the astronomei-'s time-piece. 

 But, then it is necessary to have a name, otherwise the trash 

 which is made, even by the best of the trade, will never go off. 

 Now, unfortunately for me, instead of being a Harrison, a 

 Breguet or a Pennington, I am about one of the very worst 

 mechanics that ever existed. I never yet could make a chro- 

 nometer that was good for any thing: and I had almost in de- 

 spair given up the trade altogether, and applied myself to some- 

 thing else that does not require so much talent or genius, when 

 I accidentally cast my eye over the list of Prizes offered by the 

 Admiralty " for chronometers that keep time agreeably to a 

 " certain rule laid down by the late Board of Longitude." 



Now, Sir, although I acknowledge that I am a great bung- 

 ler at the lathe and the file, at pivots and at rackwork, and 

 all the other nice operations by which that beautiful piece of 

 mechanism (the watch) is produced, yet I must confess (and 

 I pride myself not a little on the acquisition) that I have some 

 slight knowledge of figures, and of the various combinations 

 of numbers; so that when a rule in arithmetic, however in- 

 tricate and obscure, is laid before me, I can immediately see 

 through all its various ramifications and bearings, and trace 

 the result with great accuracy. I immediately fancied there- 

 fore that I saw, in this patriotic plan of Government, a favour- 

 able opportunity, not only of making, instanter, a little ready 

 mone}', but also (like many others in the world) of gaining 

 some notoriety and i-enown for points which, I have candidly 

 confessed to von, I do not imderstand. 



The 



