Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/160

NO. 1. in this machine extended to all degrees; that I never had tried it so low as the freezing point, which according to the best informations I have been able to procure is a degree of cold that never did exist between the decks of a ship at sea, in any climate yet explored by mankind.

Mr. Maskelyne then comes to the rate of its going in different positions; and says, 'It is obvious, these last-mentioned trials of the Watch in a vertical position could not be designed to shew how near it would go at sea, where it can never obtain these positions: the intent of them is to prove how near Mr. Harrison's execution of his Watch comes up to his principles, with respect to the making all the arcs described by the balance, whether large or small, to be performed in the same time, as Mr. Harrison asserts them to be.' Mr. Maskelyne here also might have had candour enough to inform the public, as I did him, that although the Watch was quite sufficient to answer the purposes required of it in navigation, and to fulfil what was prescribed by the Act of Queen Anne, yet it was far from being in a state of perfection, as an universal exact Timekeeper for every purpose; I shewed him and the rest of the Gentlemen the reasons why the machine then before them, would not go at the same rate in such different positions into which the motion of a ship could never put it; and whilst I explained to them those imperfections in the particular machine we were examining, I also in the clearest manner