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Title: Report of the Boston committee, appointed by the meeting of merchants and others, on the subject of procuring a telescope of the first class, for astronomical observations, &c.
Identifier(s): text:131; APSimg6443; Goodman Number: 121; 973 C683 No. 449
Description: Gives succinct view of the importance of telescopes in science and commerce in an effort to garner support for the purchase of a high quality telescope in Boston. Especially stresses the role of astronomical observation in navigation. Signed in type by John Pickering, Francis C. Gray, Jona[than] Phillips, W[illia]m Appleton, and Israel Lombard, members of the committee.
Creator: Boston Committee
Source: Broadsides Collection (973 C683);
Subject: Broadsides ; Broadside Class: Science; Broadside Division: Physical Science; Broadside Subdivision: Astronomy; Longitude; Telescopes
Date: 1843

Title: Premiums. The American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge, in order the more effectually to answer the ends of their institution, have agreed to appropriate, annually, a part of their funds to be disposed of in premiums to the authors of the best performances, inventions, or improvements, relative to certain specific subjects of useful knowledge. The following premiums, therefore, are now proposed by the society.
Identifier(s): text:1770; APSimg6516; Goodman Number: 11; 973 C683 No. 251
Description: Includes information on seven premiums offered by the society for the best entries in the following categories: system of liberal education, method for computing longitude by lunar observation, improvement of a ship's pump, improvement of stoves, method of preventing premature decay of peach trees, experimental treatise on vegetable dyes, and improvement of lamps. Also includes a notice of the conditions of the Magellanic premium. Note at base of this broadside requests printers of "newspapers and other periodical publications, in the United States and in Europe" to "republish the above information." Signed in type by W[illiam] Barton and John Bleakley, secretaries of the American Philosophical Society.
Creator: American Philosophical Society
Source: Broadsides Collection (973 C683);
Subject: Broadsides ; Broadside Class: Science; Broadside Division: Institutions; Broadside Subdivision: Societies; American Philosophical Society; Awards; Education; Longitude; Inventions
Date: 1796

Title: An extract from a letter of the Rev. Mr. John Hellins, formerly assistant to Mr. (now Dr.) Maskelyne, the Astronomer-Royal at Greenwich Observatory, to Francis Maseres, Esq. Dated Potter's Pury, near Stoney Stratford, in Buckinghamshire, Sept. 25, 1792.
Identifier(s): text:1773; APSimg6440; Goodman Number: 117; 973 C683 No. 114
Description: Printed copy of a letter written on behalf of Dr. Maskelyne by his former assistant, John Hellins, in reply to a pamphlet authored by Mr. [Thomas] Mudge. Mudge submitted a chronometer of his own construction for a prize offered by the British Parliament for the determination of longitude at sea. During testing at the Royal Observatory the watch stopped working, leading to claims by Mudge that his device had been improperly handled by the observatory's director, Dr. [Nevil] Maskelyne. In the letter, Hellins details his observation of Maskelyne's great care in moving and winding chronometers.
Creator: Hellins, John, d. 1827
Source: Broadsides Collection (973 C683);
Subject: Broadsides ; Broadside Class: Science; Broadside Division: Physical Science; Broadside Subdivision: Astronomy; Clocks & watches; Longitude; Maskelyne, Nevil, 1732-1811
Date: 1792