Skip to content

Please be aware that some material may contain words, descriptions or illustrations which will not reflect current scientific understanding and may be considered in today's context inaccurate, unethical, offensive or distressing.

Description

Bowring expands upon a method of determining the longitude by the observation of an absolute altitude of the moon first proposed by Alexandre Guy Pingré and Pierre Charles Le Monnier. Annotated in pencil throughout. Marked on back as 'archives'.

Subject: Astronomy

Communicated by John George Children.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 4 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'Proposal for a new method of determining the longitude, by an absolute altitude of the moon'.

Reference number
AP/21/13
Earliest possible date
1838
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
11 pages
Format
Manuscript

Use this record

Citation

Unpublished paper, 'Copy of proposals for a new method of determining the longitude by an absolute altitude of the moon' by John Christian Bowring, 1838, AP/21/13, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_21_13/unpublished-paper-copy-of-proposals-for-a-new-method-of-determining-the-longitude-by-an-absolute-altitude-of-the-moon-by-john-christian-bowring, accessed on 12 December 2025

Link to this record

Embed this record

<iframe src="https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/embed/items/ap_21_13/unpublished-paper-copy-of-proposals-for-a-new-method-of-determining-the-longitude-by-an-absolute-altitude-of-the-moon-by-john-christian-bowring" title="Unpublished paper, 'Copy of proposals for a new method of determining the longitude by an absolute altitude of the moon' by John Christian Bowring" allow="fullscreen" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>

Hierarchy

This item is part of:

Related Fellows

Explore the collection

  • Archived Papers

    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

    View collection