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I was reading up on the Longitude Act of 1714, which offered prizes to anyone who could find a practical way of determining longitude at sea (the main winner developed an accurate clock).

Today, we have the Ansari X Prize (US$10M to the first NGO to launch the same manned spaceship into space twice within 2 weeks) and the Methuselah Mouse Prize (prize amount based on how much longer your mouse lives than the prior longest-lived mouse).

So can anyone else think of good prizes to offer pre-1900? I was thinking the UK (or maybe Russia or France) could offer prizes based on who can get the furthest south, although that might lead to captains just lying about how far south they went.
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