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developing clocks of further accuracy. Further, the knowledge that longitude on
land was possible to determine with accuracy (e.g. by Huygens) gave further
strength to this aspiration of building such clocks for the sea—an example of
formation of aspiration as de/re-contextualization of experience, knowledge or
beliefs—in this case from accurately determining longitude on land to that on sea.
On the other hand, the majority in the rest of the world had a very different
experience and knowledge of clocks. Their experience with clocks of lower accu-
racy and their knowledge of the failure of pendulum clocks at sea, combined with
their (e.g. for Maskelyne) strong belief that the answer lied in using astronomical
phenomena, led them to form very different expectations and aspirations.
Multiple shipwrecks, including major ones such as the Scilly disaster, led to
formation of collective experience in the UK, which associated the current solu-
tions—'westing' or 'dead reckoning' as, respectively, with long-and-wasteful or
error-prone-and-high-risk voyages. This collective experience eventually led to
formation of a social motive of developing an accurate solution to the problem,
which was institutionalized in the form of the Board of longitude and in the
Longitude prize. The longitude prize, worth millions of dollars in today's currency,
provided a strong incentive; further resources were also provided by the Board as
grants. These created aspiration in many to search for a solution.
As can be seen, the pre-design processes consisted of experiences with current
solutions for sea- and land-navigation, which led to collective experience, beliefs
and knowledge about these solutions, with the eventual formation of similar social
motives across societal fragments (Britain, France, Holland
...
), and their institu-
tionalization in terms of resources and incentives (board, grants and prizes, etc.).
All of these formed the backdrop and influences for further pre-design processes,
which took very different paths in different individuals. Newton thought it impos-
sible to achieve the task. Maskelyne, with his firm beliefs in Astronomy and earlier
experiments with astronomical observations as sea, believed the answer lied only in
astronomical phenomena. Harrison, on the other hand, with his knowledge and
experience with timepieces believed the answer lied in chronometers, and spent
40 years developing such a solution.
The design-society cycle is rarely concluded; with all their accuracy, even H4
and H5 were too expensive to be accepted as a common solution. The lunar distance
method continued to be used for decades after, as new pre-design efforts to develop
more cost-effective timepieces began continued in parallel.
9.10
Issues for Further Research
The case study presented in this chapter is meant to stimulate discussion into
possible ways of investigating the interactions between design and society, for
taking into account, or even influencing the way pre-design, design and post-design
processes (should) interact. The proposed 'Design-Society' Cycle is one possible
framework for inquiry into such interactions.
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