Maskelyne

According to reports by the investigators such as Richard Hodgson and magician John Nevil Maskelyne all the phenomena observed in the Cambridge sittings were the result of trickery.

During Harrison's second trial of his 'Sea watch' (H4) the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne was asked to accompany HMS Tartar and test the Lunar Distances system.

From Maskelyne’s observations Charles Hutton deduced a density for the earth 4.5 times that of water (the modern value is 5.515).

German reconnaissance aircraft photographed the site and the faked damage by Jasper Maskelyne convinced Chapman's German controllers that the attack had been successful.

Maskelyne attended Westminster School and was still a pupil there when his mother died in 1748.

Maskelyne's grave can be seen by going through the church gates and veering to the right, against the right outside wall of the church.

Nevil Maskelyne and Robert Waddington set up an observatory in 1761 to observe the transit of Venus, following a suggestion first made by Halley.

The British stage magician Nevil Maskelyne wrote in 1908: It is an experience common to all men to find that, on any special occasion, such as the production of a magical effect for the first time in public, everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

The lunar-distance method could more quickly be rolled out, with Maskelyne's proposal that tables like those in his "The British Mariner's Guide" be published for each year.

The new instrument was constructed by Edward Troughton but Maskelyne did not live to see it completed.

Unfortunately, Nevil Maskelyne had been appointed Astronomer Royal on his return from Barbados, and was therefore also placed on the Board of Longitude.