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,
DARD 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. Front this letter it will be seen
that the. award of the admiralty prize did not solely depend
upon the merit of the chronometers :
TO THE EDITOR 01, THE MORNING
Sirt,—Noticing„a paragraph in your paper of
on the subject of chronometers on the lute till -
calls for some observations; in consequenc
following extract from the paragraph in que
" On the determination of the late an
meters, at the Royal Observatory, Gree
prize was again awarded to Mr. Joho
Tooley street, for the very great supe
No. 144, being the only citron e
entitled to any reward."
From this statement, the publ might infer that Mr. Carter
was entitled to the premium fo his chronometer No. 144, for
its superior performance. The plain facts are as follow. • On
the termination of the trial, the prize 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.
From 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. _

.. ,
ith inst.,

'consider it
'e make the.

41 trial of chrono-
rich, the government
Carter, of No. 207,
Arity of his chronometer,
:r on the late public trial

In conclusion, we have to remark, that our attention has 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!,
borne out by the fact, that out of five c'nronotneters, deposited,
by us on the last three public trials, four have remained vithin
the limits, the fifth not exceeding them before the 10th month,
Your humble servants,
LITHERLAND, DAVIS, and
1, March 21st, 1835.
iwing is the rate of going of the prize chronometer
Litherland, Davies, and Co., N 0.315 :
Mean daily Ext..crne
rate. variation
See. sec.
minus 0 01, 1 3
minus() 36 1 8
minus() 10 1 4
minus() 08 " 1 4
• 0 (►U 1 1
plus, 0 16 1 2
phis 0 06 - 1 8
plus 0 19 •- 1 3 .
plus 0 .49 1 1
• plus 0 57 1
plus 0 77 1 1
plus 0 61 1 7
EXAM PL,
'Rate for February—slow
Ditto November—fast

Licarpoo,

The folli
of Messrs.

1831.
January ..
February
March....
April ....
May
June ....

The Trial Number is
found by taking th 4 differ.
once of the greater and les-
ser mean ir.tinady rate, and
multiplying the same by 'A,
it'd adding thereto the mean
of the monthly extreme va-
riation.

July
August
September
October ..
November
December

sec.
0 3t;
0 77

Difference 1 13

Difference multiplied by 2 2 26
Mean extreme of variation 1 36
Trial number ..3 62