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...English Parliament offered a prize of £20 000 to anyone who could determine longitude at sea to within a half a degree (or two minutes: the Earth revolves through 360o in 24 hours, so every one degree of longitude corresponds to four minutes). Many eminent scientists set to work, but it was an unknown amateur clockmaker from Yorkshire, John Harrison, who rose to the...

...English Literature, Creative Writing and Classical Studies today...In the eighteenth century and into the early part of the nineteenth, considerable numbers of aristocratic men (and occasionally women) travelled across Europe in pursuit of education, social advancement and entertainment, on what was known as the Grand Tour. A central objective was to gain exposure to the...