NOTES ON SOME POINTS CONNECTED WITH THE EARLY 

 HISTORY OF THE "NAUTICAL ALMANAC." 



By EDWIN DUNKIN, P.R.S., V.P.R.A.S,, Late Chief Assistant at the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich. 



One of the most valuable results of the progress of astro- 

 nomical research in the middle of the last century, was the 

 institution of the "Nautical Almanac," a work that has con- 

 tributed much more than any other ephemeris towards the 

 practical development of the sciences of astronomy, geography, 

 and navigation , and which, in its modern and improved form, 

 still continues the honoured vade mecum of the astronomer, the 

 explorer, and the mariner of the present day. It has occurred 

 to me that it may be appropriate to record in the Journal of the 

 Royal Institution of Cornwall, — as a slight contribution to the 

 scientific history of the county — a few personal notes hitherto 

 unpublished, chiefly relating to the association of a well-known 

 Cornish " worthy " with the compilation of the early volumes of 

 the first series of that work ; and at the same time to point out 

 an important error in some of our county histories, concerning 

 the date and object of his temporary residence at the Royal 

 Observatory in 1769. 



As our national ephemeris has now become the necessary 

 companion, or handbook, of sailors of all nations, as well as of 

 astronomers, any information not generally known, in relation to 

 its early history, cannot fail to be appreciated by men of science, 

 especially in Cornwall, in whose towns and villages a very con- 

 siderable portion of the calculations were made between the 

 years 1775 and 1831. In the latter year the ''Nautical Almanac" 

 office, as it exists at present, was permanently established in 

 London, in which all the calculations are now made.* 



It must be understood that the publication of a nautical 

 ephemeris of any real scientific value was not possible before 

 the middle of the last century, as even at that time very imper- 

 fect materials were in existence from which any reliable 

 astronomical predictions could be made, especially of stated 

 daily positions of the moon. It is true that observations of our 



* The " Nautical Almanac Office" is now attached to the Civil Department 

 of the Navy, and the computers are recognised members of the Civil Service." 



