Longitude (TV series) Quotes

Longitude is a Costume drama that first aired in 2000 on Channel 4. Longitude ended its run in 2000.

Longitude was on for 4 (2 DVDs) episodes. It features Selwyn Roberts as producer, Geoffrey Burgon as composer, and Peter Hannan as head of cinematography. Longitude is executive produced by Pippa Cross,.

Each episode of Longitude is 250 min (UK) long. Longitude is produced by ITV Granada and distributed by ITV Studios.

Longitude Quotes

• (Elizabeth Harrison) "You've found a way to build this sea-clock, haven't you?"
• (John Harrison) "With God's help it might be possible. --I mean, why did He encourage me to build a perfect timepiece in the first place? So the blacksmith might start work 5 seconds earlier or later? Or was it to give us the ability to explore His creation in safety, to move without fear in the space He's given us to inhabit?"

• (Muriel Gould) "I want you to give up the clock."
• (Rupert Gould) "I will -- when it's finished."
• (Muriel Gould) "Yes, I knew you'd say that. Silly of me, really."

• (John Harrison) "It's not just beautiful, it's divine: that's where the beauty lies, you see. Each note on the scale is calculated by mathematical formula, based on the circumference of a circle, you see."
• (Sir Charles Pelham) "Uh, almost --"
• (John Harrison) "The step between each note is composed of larger and lesser intervals, each derived from pi. It is divine because for the first time we are listening to music as the Lord intended."

• (Captain Digges) "Mr. Harrison, it seems I owe you an apology. And may I put my marker down, here and now, for the first watch that your father makes to go on sale to the public?"

• (William Harrison) "Taking that into account, there's a possible error in the longitude of less than half a degree."
• (Captain Bourke) "Let me be the first to congratulate you."
• (William Harrison) "No, thank you. I'm already drunk. All my life -- my father's life -- has been for this moment. Listen: if the watch stops now, sir, so does my heart, for there will be no proof of its achievement. Half a degree -- we've won the prize, captain, we've won the prize."

• (George Graham) "Mr. Harrison. Summer and winter -- how is it done? How is it done, the compensation?"
• (John Harrison) "I use a pendulum of different metals that work against each other."
• (George Graham) "Impossible. Doesn't work. I've tried it."
• (John Harrison) "It is possible. It does work. I've built it."

• (Lord Morton) "Mr. Harrison, either your father signs an oath agreeing to these terms, or this matter ends here. We are prepared to pay half the award (less those monies paid out), once we are satisfied with the disclosure, and the other half when the new watches made by your father have proved their worth."
• (William Harrison) "Your Honor, if you would just change the wording of "experimental observations", he would, 'e would sign."
• (Lord Morton) "No, no, no, NO, NO -- How many times do I have to say it to you bloody people ?.. You do not negotiate with this Board.."

• (Narrator) "John Harrison never received his reward from the Board of Longitude. It came to him by special Act of Parliament, when he was 80 years old."

• (Lieutenant John Campbell) "Gentlemen, Captain Cook is carrying a copy of Mr. Harrison's timekeeper made by Mr. Kendall, and the, um, astronomical tables of the Rev. Maskelyn. His full report will not be available until his return, but I am able to read you this extract from his log: "It would not be doing justice to Mr. Harrison and Mr. Kendall if I did not own that we have received very great assistance from this useful and valuable timepiece. The watch was used to predict the landfall of St. Helena within three miles.""
• (Reverend Nevil Maskelyne) "This is not evidence, but anecdote."

• (Rupert Gould) "What makes a man great? A man may be great in his aims, or in his achievements, or in both, but I think that man is truly great who makes the world his debtor -- who does something for the world which the world needs and which nobody before him has done or known how to do."

• (John Harrison) "I'm afraid you must excuse me, but I should go back on deck. The air in here is --"
• (John Campbell) "Poisonous? You'll get used to it. Most people don't notice it after the first couple of years."

• (Lord Morton) "Mr. Harrison, please step forward."
• (Lord Morton) ""It is the finding of this Board that the watch or timepiece created by John and William Harrison did keep correct time within the greatest accuracy required by the Act of Queen Anne as drawn up by Parliament 51 years ago.""
• (William Harrison) "Milord, may I have a copy of those to show my father? He has waited a long time to hear your Lordship's kind words."
• (Lord Morton) "In good time, Mr. Harrison. Astronomer Royal, would you be kind enough to read the fifth paragraph of the Act?"
• (Reverend Nevil Maskelyne) "My lord."
• (Reverend Nevil Maskelyne) ""And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that as soon as such Method for the Discovery of the said Longitude shall have been tried and found practicable and useful at Sea -- ""
• (Lord Morton) "Thank you. "Practicable and useful": those are the words I wish to draw to your attention. We accept the usefulness of the watch, but is it practicable? Mr. Harrison himself has never permitted this committee to examine the workings of his timepiece; I suggest to you that is because he himself has doubt about the practical use of his invention."
• (William Harrison) "Milords, you must understand that my father has sought to protect his work from those who might steal his inventions. But if this board requires it, we shall submit detailed drawings of the workings of the watch, when he has received his prize."
• (Lord Morton) "Mr. Harrison, this Board does not accept restrictions placed upon its work as prescribed by Parliament. Here are the conditions required for fulfilment of the terms of the Act."
• (Reverend Nevil Maskelyne) ""First, your father must, in person, take the watch apart and explain the working of every detail to the complete satisfaction of such persons as this Board shall appoint. This shall include any experimental observations they may require. Secondly, he shall make, or cause to be made under his sole direction, two further watches of the same design, to demonstrate the practicality of their construction. And thirdly, these new watches shall be subjected to such test or tests as this Board shall require, to ascertain their usefulness under the terms of the Act." Then, and only then, will he receive his prize."
• (William Harrison) "Milord, my father is sick and he's 73 years old."
• (Lord Morton) "He has until Thursday to accept the conditions -- which, I must inform you, have been submitted to Parliament and will form part of a new amendment to this Bill."

• (John Harrison) "I may not be spared to complete another watch, but I've begun one. It will not, gentleman, be a copy, because I am mindful of the Act of Queen Anne, to which I've clung for over 50 years like a, like a shipwrecked sailor to a barrel -- "to be practical," and that's been my gospel and my creed. I have an idea that the heat compensation must be within the balance of the watch and not around it. And this morning I made this."
• (John Harrison) "I tried the idea in my first sea clock, over 40 years ago. I failed. I didn't undertand it; so much I didn't understand. A compensating balance wheel will simplify the adjustment of the machine, so others may make my watches more easily -- should God grant me the time to complete my labours."

• (Minister for the Navy) "Honorable Members who mourn with us the recent tragic loss off the Scilly Isles of four of Her Majesty's ships, and 2,000 wretched souls therein, under the command of Admiral Sir Cloudisley Shovell, will be pleased to know that Her Majesty's government is to offer a reward -- a prize of twenty thousand pounds -- to any man offering a practicable and useful solution to the problem of finding longitude at sea. A Board of Longitude will be set up, whose sole business will be to investigate any serious suggestions, and finally, it is profoundly to be hoped, to award this prize."

• (Nurse Grace Ingram) "They're going to kick you out soon, you know."
• (Rupert Gould) "Oh, they can't possibly. I'm feeling particularly mad at the moment."
• (Nurse Grace Ingram) "I don't think they cure that kind of madness here. What will you do?"
• (Rupert Gould) "Don't know. Pitch a tent outside the gates, I suppose. Do you have any objections to life under canvas?"
• (Nurse Grace Ingram) "Not more than -- a couple of thousand."

• (Lord Morton) "This society was created so that men of science might solve the mysteries of our planet. I would not wish to see the longitude prize stolen by a country toolmaker."

• (Unnamed) "Well, Parliament has already been the instrument of much mischief. There is, therefore, only one court of appeal I could recommend."
• (William Harrison) "And that is?"
• (Unnamed) "The Crown."

• (Lieutenant John Campbell) "I sailed in the company of 961 men, sir. 203 returned to England. Of the 760 who died, only 48 were killed by enemy action."
• (John Harrison) "And the rest?"
• (Lieutenant John Campbell) "Disease. Despair. We were lost: weeks on end without sight of land, fresh food, water -- Although much of the time we were within 6 hours' sailing of Juan Fernandez; but we mistook our position -- didn't know it. I saw more men die than any Roman emperor. Men who you'll remember, and who remembered you: John Sprague; Lieutenant Draper; the messboys, Ned and Sed, didn't even make 14. We all heard about the Orford and how your machine performed, as we sailed hopelessly on, heaving man after man over the side."

• (John Harrison) "You've seen how the watch has performed in the test. It's not perfect, but what if I could make it so? What if I could make a timepiece no bigger than the span of a man's hand, that could be taken to sea? Now wouldn't that be a practical solution?"
• (Rupert Gould) "Harrison's fourth machine, by reason alike of its beauty and its accuracy, must take pride of place as the most famous chronometer that ever has been or ever will be made. But the journey from his third machine, which you see behind me, to his fourth (thank you), is one of the most extraordinary mysteries of horology. Faced as he was by a seemingly insuperable problem of centrifugal forces, Harrison took a daring and lateral leap. It is as though an aeronautical engineer suddenly ceased development on a new aircraft and instead adapted the technology to make his bicycle fly to France."

• (Lieutenant John Campbell) "I thought only of one thing: a piece of twisted brass spinning. There, look. Look at its little heart still beating. I thought to myself, this'll never happen again. There'll be a machine to tell us where we are. I swore that if I lived, I'd come and find you."
• (John Harrison) "John, when they were dying, who did your men curse for their misfortune?"
• (Lieutenant John Campbell) "Their God, or their admiral; when you're a foot, there's little difference."
• (John Harrison) "And if they'd a clock, and the clock didn't work, and the men still died -- who would they curse then? When you're young, you think everything's possible. But as you grow older, you discover that it isn't."
• (Lieutenant John Campbell) "Well then, don't grow older, Mr. Harrison."

• (Sir Kenhelm Digby) "Now, it is vital to my process, Sir Edmund, that each dog be wounded with the same knife, as these three animals have been, under my instructions, some three days ago. Now, the animals are then to be conveyed aboard one of His Majesty's ships, uh, under the supervision of a designated officer, whose task it is to prevent the wound from healing. Now the knife, however, would remain here, in London, and at precisely noon, each day, is to be plunged into the Powder of Sympathy, which would immediately aggravate the wound, so that each dog, now matter how many thousands of miles away he may be on his particular vessel, would begin to howl -- thus."

• (Unnamed) "What the bloody hell is that?"

• (George Graham) "One second a month, sir. You're either a liar or a fool. --Who're your makers?"
• (John Harrison) "Myself, and my brother James."
• (George Graham) "Really? Who were you apprenticed to?"
• (John Harrison) "My father, as was he. I am a carpenter by profession."
• (George Graham) "A carpenter?."
• (John Harrison) "My timekeepers are made of wood. I've brought some drawings with me."
• (George Graham) "I'm sorry, I mistook you. This is a joke, sir, am I right? Mr. Halley seeks to derive some pleasure from this contrivance? Is he here, perhaps, hiding in a corner to watch my performance?"
• (John Harrison) "It is I who am sorry, sir. The fault is mine. It was my impression I was here to see a clockmaker; I find myself in a toy shop by mistake. William."

• (Sir Charles Pelham) "How can you tell if a clock is running 5 seconds faster, or slower?"
• (John Harrison) "My own pendulum clock is adjusted to one second a month."
• (Sir Charles Pelham) "O-ho-ho, no clock can be that accurate."
• (John Harrison) "Mine can."

• (John Harrison) "It is 25 years since I first had the honor to address this board, under the chairmanship of Dr. Edmund 'Alley. And since that time I've worked with only one ambition: to satisfy your requirements as laid down by Act of Parliament, for the discovery of longitude at sea. It is with both great pride and honor, and humility, that I stand here today with my son, after his great triumph."
• (Dr. Bliss) "Thank you, Mr. Harrison, yes, thank you. Now. I have asked you here to inform you of the resolution of the Board: that, firstly, the brief calculations of Mr. William Harrison are to be sent for computation; and the instruments used in those observations are also to be sent for examination. The board will then consider these reports at a further meeting, the date of which will be announced in due course. That will be all for now, gentlemen."
• (John Harrison) "Sir, I am an old man, and an old man can sometimes find his senses unexpectedly weakened. There is perhaps an element of your argument that I have misunderstood, or even misheard. My watch lost -- lost one minute, 53 and a half seconds after 81 days at sea. As witnessed and signed in the, in the papers you have before you, which you seem so keen to put away. I have fulfilled the terms most exactly, as laid down in the Act of Queen Anne, and I demand that you consider the question of my reward."
• (Dr. Bliss) "Mr. Harrison, I am not a commissioner of the gaming board, here to settle some bet. I am a scientist bent on investigation of a most serious subject."

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