Longitude

the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time

by Dava Sobel

184 pages

English language

Published Sept. 23, 2005 by MJF Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-60671-276-4
OCLC Number:: 921896984

(4 reviews)

The story of mariners' centuries-long search for ways of determining longitude that tells not only of the scientific advances but of the perseverance, pettiness, politics, & interesting anecdotes involved. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of John 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 a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking. Through Dava Sobel's consummate skill, Longitude will open a new window on our world for all who read it.

35 editions

hsubu reviewed Longitude by Dava Sobel

Review of 'Longitude' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Short, crisp, and quite enjoyable history of the longitude problem. As a help to understand the mechanical devices described in this book, I looked at videos and animations of Harrison's chronometers available online. That helped a lot in understanding the scale of achievement of John Harrison. The author does not attempt to make a "what happened at the end?" mystery out of this story. The summary of what happened is stated right at the beginning. The author instead engages the reader by providing the context of the times, the details of the challenges, and so on. This approach works quite well.
Those of you who work in engineering will find the technology development challenges described in this book quite relatable!