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Longitude Uk Edition True Story of a Lone Gen

By Dava Sobel

(46)

| Hardcover | 9781857025026

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Book Description

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 weContinue

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.

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....

8 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    Longitude

    A short little history of the various attempts to solve the longitude problem. I have encountered this same story briefly before in a book I read last year, The Mapmakers by by John Noble Wilford, but this book focuses more exclusively on John Harrison and his battle for getting his highly accurate ... (continue)

    A short little history of the various attempts to solve the longitude problem. I have encountered this same story briefly before in a book I read last year, The Mapmakers by by John Noble Wilford, but this book focuses more exclusively on John Harrison and his battle for getting his highly accurate chronometers accepted by the English Parliament as an acceptable method for determining longitude.

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    Readingrat said on Dec 5, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Can't remember if I saw the tv doc first or after reading this, but the book tells about a man with a passion in life. A passion for the finest mechanisms and in finding ways to make them work to keep time. The best about the book is the portrait of Harrison who continues to work on his clocks despi ... (continue)

    Can't remember if I saw the tv doc first or after reading this, but the book tells about a man with a passion in life. A passion for the finest mechanisms and in finding ways to make them work to keep time. The best about the book is the portrait of Harrison who continues to work on his clocks despite all the injustice done to them. And then there is all the talk about the science of the day: from the lunar observation chair and the powder of sympathy, to the interesting characters of science in those days, up to and including the king, who did some science in his spare time as well!

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    xpro said on Jun 1, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • It's actually quite good, except I wasn't interested in the subject

    Astronomers versus horolgists, a theoretical vs a practical apporach to determining longitude.

    I guess it addresses a reader that is more interested than me in these matters, so I found it a little boring.

    Come to think of it, I didn't buy the book. It was a gift.

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    fran_ces said on Jul 28, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • One of those books I didn't think I'd really like, but turned out to be a delightful surprise.

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    SWReader said on Oct 25, 2009 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • Exceptionally good book. Truly fascinating from start to finish. To realise that this dramatic story is not fiction - but fact - is mind blowing. The opening scenes detailing the destruction of Sir Cloudisley Shovell's fleet, in fog, on the Scilly Isles, after a victorious battle with the French in ... (continue)

    Exceptionally good book. Truly fascinating from start to finish. To realise that this dramatic story is not fiction - but fact - is mind blowing. The opening scenes detailing the destruction of Sir Cloudisley Shovell's fleet, in fog, on the Scilly Isles, after a victorious battle with the French in the Mediterranean is certainly better than fiction. This dramatic account sets the scene for John Harrison to be introduced and what follows records the personal battle he had to build his perfect 'time-piece' and the in-fighting that took place by other to try and rob him of the prize.

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    GraJon said on Mar 15, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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