Oti the System of Prize Chronometers at Greeniaich. 425 



The trial number (as it is technically called), or the I'ule by 

 which the prizes at Greenwich are distributed, is ascertained 

 " by taking the difference of the greater and lesser monthly 

 " rates of each chronometer, multiplying that difference by 2, 

 " and adding thereto the mean of" the monthly extreme varia- 

 " tions:" and that trial number which, by this process, comes 

 out the least, is entitled to the highest prize*. I shall not stop 

 to examine the elegance of this enunciation, nor the accuracy 

 of the reasoning on which it is founded, as its propriety and 

 justness must and ought to be duly acknowledged and appre- 

 tiated, when we learn that it was the deliberate result of a 

 Committee of the late Board of Longitude, assembled for that 

 express purpose, and signed in due form and order by five or 

 six of the most distinguished members of that Board. And 

 although some naughty folks have been bold enough lately to 

 throw out insinuations against that Board, as if there was al- 

 ways some interested motive mixed up with their proceedings, 

 yet my motto is De mcrtuis nil nisi honum : and, in this in- 

 stance, I can have no reason to complain, since I mean to pro- 

 fit so much by it myself: — and since the plan (as I shall now 

 proceed to show) not only encourages the good workman, but 

 also holds out a reward to those who, like myself, never could 

 make a watch fit even for a lady's toilet. 



By way of experiment I borrowed one of my late master's 

 very best chronometers (one that he proposed to deposit at the 

 Observatory, as a candidate for the prize), and having compared 

 it day by day, for two months, with one of my own ordinary 

 watches (one, indeed, that had been hanging up a long time 

 in my shop window without a chance of its ever being sold), 

 I found that the scheme would succeed, and that my name 

 would soon be sounded abroad as having run away with all 

 the jjrizes at Greenwich. The following is the result of my 

 experiment: and 1 leave you to judge, Mr. Editor, of the de- 

 light I experienced, as I watched from day to day (almost with 

 a sneer upon my countenance) the slow and stupid progress of 

 my master's dull piece of mechanism, which did not vary for 

 many days together: whilst mine, as if actually anticipating 

 the iiigli honours to which it was about to be raised, skipped 

 about with an hilarity equal to my own, and could not be de- 

 pended on fur two days, or even for two hours together. 



• This is the official wording of the rule as translalcd for the benefit and 

 convenience of the liumblc nieciianic. 'J'he original document (which I 

 may probal)iy give at some future time) is very lonj;, and ninth too sublime 

 for our vulgar ears. 



N. S. Vol. 6. No, 36. Dec. 1829. 3 I 



