Product Description

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 centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution.

The quest for a solution had occupied scientists and their patrons for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, the Parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (20,000) to anyone whose method or device proved successful. Countless quacks weighed in with preposterous suggestions. The scientific establishment throughout Europe - from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton - had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit 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 ever been able to do on land.

Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, it is also fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking. Through Dava Sobel's consumate skill, Longitude will open a new window on our world for all who read it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51613 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 189 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The thorniest scientific problem of the 18th century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward. --Amazon.com

Financial Times
Dava Sobel has written a gem of a book...one of the best reads for the non-scientific writing to come along for many a moon."

Daily Mail
"A true life thriller, jam-packed with political intrigue, international warfare, personal feuds and financial skullduggery."

Customer Reviews

Pride and Prejudice
Harrison seems to have been one of those people who is his own worst enemy; too proud to be successful.
Sobel is almost as prejudiced in his favour as some of those who opposed him were prejudiced against him. So it's difficult to feel you have read this and got the true picture. It seems that the astronomical methods were more successful than she admits for most of the book.
Nevertheless this is a helpful read which puts the development of clocks into context and reminds us just how difficult it was to navigate the seas safely in the days before GPS.

Tick Tock
The epic story on the search for the holy grail of maritime navigation, how to calculate longitude? This is the story and the unlikely triumph of an English genius who more or less solved the age old problem of obtaining accurate longitude position fixes by the use of chronometers.

Anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that 'the longitude problem' was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution. The quest for a solution had occupied scientists and their patrons for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, Parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (GBP20,000) to anyone whose method or device proved successful. It is amazing to think that some highly intelligent individuals came out with some of the most preposterous suggestions imaginable.

However in the main the intellects of the day were on the right path. Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton and most of the European scientific community had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in their dogmatic pursuit of a celestial answer to the problem. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution by using chronometers. He designs and constructs the most amazing time pieces of the era in his quest for accuracy and sets out on a series of sea trials to prove his point. This he eventually did but it took over two decades and more than a few arguments with the governments of the day.

A detailed, descriptive read full of interesting facts and features which basically is a concise historical narrative on astronomy, navigation and clock making. Without sounding like an 'anorak' I found the descriptions on clock making and testing really interesting.

A very interesting single sitting read!

Very Good
Longitude does not at the outset seem a very interesting idea for a book but this is a mistaken assumption. It is very well written, not overly technical plus has a pace to it which keeps the reader intrested. All in all a very good book.