The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-03-31 00:00:00

PRIZE CHRONOMETERS.

In consequence of the appearance of an article in the STAN
DARE.. of Friday last, on the subject of prize chronometers, we
have been requested by Messrs. Litherland, Davies, and Co. to
republish the following letter, relative to the performance of
the chronometers sent by them to the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, for public trial. From this, letter it will be seen
that the award of the admiralty prize did not solely depend
upon the merit of the chronometers :
TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.
SlR,—Noticing,a paragraph in your paper of the 18th inst.,
en the subject of chronometers on the late trial, ws,consider it
calls for some observations; in consequence, ,-11 make the
following extract from the paragraph in (pestle.
" On the determination of the late anuu '4
meters, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwid
prize was again awarded to Mr. John
f ooley-street, for the very great sup riori
No. 144, being the only chronomet r
entitled to any reward."
From this statement, the public t infer that Mr. Carter
was entitled to the premium for hi ronumeter No. 144, for
its superior performance. The pla facts are as follow. On
the termination of the trial, the pr e number of our chrono-
meter, No. 315 (according _to the formula laid down by the
Board of Longitude), was 3.62 sec. Mr. Carter's, by the same
rule, 4.27 sec.
On . this occasion, an affidavit was tendered to us by the
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to the effect, " that
the springing and adjusting of the chronometrical parts of the
chronometer must be entirely and solely our.own, .without com-
bining the talent or.assistance of any other person for those
purposes," and stating that without this declaration was made
before a magistrate, we were not entitled to .the premium.
Upon mature consideration, we declined taking this oath, and
consequently lost the premium. Mr. Carter took this affidavit,
which was followed by his being awarded the premium, without
any reference to the merits of a chronometer infinitely superior.
r rom the slight acquaintance we have with Mr. Carter, we
presume that the paragraph quoted was inserted without his
knowledge; and we trust he will do us the justice to acknow-
ledge the superiority of the going of our chronometer, and that
we were fairly entitled to the premium, only for the oath
tendered to us, which oath is without precedent on former trials,
and entirely unknown to us on depositing our chronometer for
trial.
In conclusion, we have to remark, that our attention hag been
solely directed to the production of good chronometers, by the
combination of talent in the different branches of chronometer
making, under our own immediate inspection, being ourselves
practically acquainted with all the mechanical operations re-
quired to form a good chronometer : the truth of which will be
borne out by the fact, that out of five chronometers, deposited
by us on the last three public trials, four have remaiued within
the limits, the fifth not exceeding them before the 10th month
Your humble servants,
LITEIERLAND, DAVIS; and CO.
March 21st, 1835.
swing is the r
Litherland,
Mean daily
rate.
" stir.
minus° • 04
'Minus() 36
minus 0 It)•
minus°. 08
0 00
plus 0 16
plus 0 06
plus 0 19
plus 0 49
plus 0 57
plus 0 77
plus 0 61

trial of chrono-
( the government
rter, of No. 207,
of his chronometer,
the late public trial

Liverpoo,

The foil
of Messrs.

ite of going of the prize chronometer
avies, and Co., No. 315 :
Ext. eine'
variation.
sec.
1 3
1 8
1 4
1 4
1 1
1 2
1 8
1 3.
1 1
1
1 1
1 7
EXA MPLJ
Rate for February—slow
Ditto November—fast

1831.
January
February

The Trial Number is
found by taking the differ-
ence of the greater and !os-
ier mean monthly rate and
multiplying the same by 2,
ind adding thereto the mean
of the monthly extreme va-
riation.

April ....
May
June ....

July ...
August
Sep:emberl
October
November
December

0 3G
U 77

Difference 1 13

Difference multiplied by 2 2 26
Mean extreme ut variation 1 36

Trial number 3 62