“Solar/Lunar Eclipse” - Solar and lunar eclipses could be very accurately predicted.  An astronomer proposed that accurate time could be determined by a key list of eclipses.  When a sea captain saw an eclipse the list could tell the exact time, but the long interval between each event made the method impractical.

“Wounded Dog” - An alchemist in France claimed to have invented a magic healing powder that could cause a dog to howl from a distance when the powder was applied to a cloth that had been in contact with an open wound on the dog.  The dog was wounded and a cloth applied to the wound.  The cloth stayed in Greenwich, England and the dog went to sea on a ship.  Each day at exactly 12 noon, the magic powder was applied to the cloth in Greenwich.  The dog on the ship howled, the wound healed, and the captain knew it was 12 noon. Each day the dog had to be wounded again so the whole process could start over.  Needless to say, this entry didn’t win.

“Anchored Ships” - This idea anchored ships out at sea 7 miles apart.  The 1st ship fired canons at 12 noon.  Then each ship that heard fired its canons letting everyone know that it was 12 o’clock.  The cost of this operation along with the danger of having so many ships out to sea all the time was the downfall of this idea.

“Moons of Jupiter” - Galileo came up with an accurate way of telling time on land and proposed it could be used at sea.  The eclipses of Jupiter’s moons happened several times every day.  Galileo could predict them accurately providing a way to tell the exact time by looking through a telescope to view the eclipse.  This idea was in the top running for the contest.  It worked on land, but the movement of ships at sea made it hard to keep a telescope steady enough to view the moons of Jupiter.  It also took too long to do the calculations, around 4 hours.