ABSTRACT
In 1796, Nevil Maskelyne, the fifth Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, sacked his experienced assistant David Kinnebrook because Kinnebrook's measurements of precise moments when stars crossed fixed reference points were consistently slower than his own. Maskelyne is now remembered for his attempts to suppress and undermine the achievement of John Harrison whose innovative clocks were the first practical solution to problem of determining longitude: a problem that Maskelyne also had a strong vested interest in solving. This discreditable episode suggests that Maskelyne was obstinate and self-centred, but he was also a capable observer and a dedicated scientist and, through the Royal Society, in touch with the wider science of his time. His harsh treatment of Kinnebrook could be justified in terms of little then known about human minds. If the speed of thought is immeasurably fast, disparities between individuals that is as large as eight-tenths of a second must be due to slackness or perversity rather than to biological limitations.
