On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences

In consequence of the relations already mentioned in the mean motions and mean longitudes of the first three satellites, they never can be all eclipsed at the same time: for, when the second and third are in one direction, the first is in the opposite direction; consequently, when the first is eclipsed, the other two must be between the sun and Jupiter. The instant of the beginning or end of an eclipse of a satellite marks the same instant of absolute time to all the inhabitants of the earth; therefore, the time of these eclipses observed by a traveller, when compared with the time of the eclipse computed for Greenwich, or any other fixed meridian (N. 95), gives the difference of the meridians in time, and, consequently, the longitude of the place of observation. The longitude is determined with extreme precision whenever it is possible to convey the time instantaneously by means of electricity from one place to another, since it obviates the errors of clocks and chronometers. The eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites have been the means of a discovery which, though not so immediately applicable to the wants of man, unfolds one of the properties of light—that medium without whose cheering influence all the beauties of the creation would have been to us a blank.