jimNtexas's Full Review: Dava Sobel - Longitude: The True Story of a Lone G...
This is a wonderful book. This book takes us back to a time when it was difficult to the point of impossibility for a sailor to know his position, or for anyone to accurately know the time of day. It also shows how one man can overcome the longest of odds by shear perseverance.
It turns out that to know one's Longitude, one must know the time of day. By 1700 this was possible on land, but it was considered impossible for a clock to work reliably onboard the ships that carried the world's trade. Many shipwrecks resulted from lack of good navigational information. So critical was this problem that in 1714 that the English government offered a huge cash prize to the person who find the longitude at sea.
This is the story of an obscure Scottish clock maker who persevered for 40 years to claim the prize.
Sobel's writing is clear and easy to follow. The book is a short, easy, and very rewarding read. The only problem was the lack of good pictures in the paperback edition. The Harrison clocks are beautiful instruments, and some have been run continually from that day to this.
This book was the basis of a PBS "Nova" episode which greatly complements the book.
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for ...More at HotBookSale
Sobel presents the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of John Harrison s 40-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper, kno...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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