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Key Information
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| Authors: |
Dava Sobel |
| Narrator: |
Kate Reading |
| Fiction Genre: |
Biography & Autobiography · |
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Professional Reviews
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Library Journal: If you've grown up at a time when orbiting satellites were taken for granted, you'd probably not find reading a book about longitude an enticing prospect. But Sobel, an award-winning former science reporter for the New York Times who writes frequently for Audubon, Discover, LIFE, and Omni magazines, has transformed what could have been a dry subject into an interesting tale of scientific discovery. It is difficult to realize that a problem that can now be solved with a couple of cheap watches and a few simple calculations at one time appeared insurmountable. In 1714, the British Parliament offered a king's ransom of ?20 million ($12 million in today's currency) to anyone who could solve the problem of how to measure longitude at sea. Sobel recounts clockmaker John Harrison's lifelong struggle to win this prize by developing a timepiece impervious to the pitch and roll of the sea. His clock, known today as the chronometer, was rejected by the Longitude Board, which favored a ce |
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Book Editions
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Format: Paperback, 184
Publisher: Walker & Co (October 30, 2007)
Measurements: 7.5"(h) x 4.5"(w) x 0.75"(d), 0.4 lbs.
ISBN: 9780802715296 |
| More Information |
| Details: |
During the great ages of exploration, "the longitude problem" was the gravest of all scientific challenges. Lacking the ability to determine their longitude, sailors were literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ships ran aground on rocky shores; those traveling well-known routes were easy prey to pirates.<p>In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment, from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton, had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution, a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on.<P>Complete with a new foreword written and read by Neil Armstrong. |
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