Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
 | By Dava Sobel Isis, 1998, Hardcover Customer Rating: 264 reviews Recommend This product is currently not available and cannot be purchased. It means that we have no merchant offers for this product at the moment or it was discontinued by the manufacturer. |
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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....
The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth 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.
Title: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Sales Rank: 1498381 in Books
Author: Dava Sobel
Publisher: Isis, Lrg edition, 1998-01, Hardcover, 200 pages, ISBN: 0753150360
Package Dimensions: 9.54 x 6.39 x 0.57 inches, 0.86 pounds
- Longitude - Great for science-minded kids over 10
- I bought this for my visiting grandson. We had a fine time reading it together and discussing what a great invention longitude was, how many sailors' lives it saved, and the way the inventor had to fight to get the prize offered by the government for finding a way for sailors to know their exact location. I finally know why Greenwich is the "center"… More reviews
- Longitude is terrific
- This book is a well-written story about how scientists and engineers figured out how to navigate the globe. It is a story that was well known in its day and forgotten within 50 years. More reviews
- Surprisingly fantastic!
- My husband (a scientist) loves books on exploration and discovery. When he finished this book - surprisingly quickly - he said "you'll love this." Sure, I'll read anything once so I gave it a try. The author has such a knack with prose that this book basically read itself! Time flew when I picked it up and I was done in no time. What a fantastic surprise! When I finished… More reviews
- Very Interesting
- A short but well written book that sheds light on an almost forgotten man who changed the world. Interesting and fun to read, worth checking out. More reviews
- Genuinely great story, but BEWARE of some inaccuracies in this book.
- John Harrison completes his first pendulum clock in 1713 before the age of 20. He made the gears for this out of wood which was radical for such a use, but as a carpenter, perhaps not to him---which is a mark of genius, I'd say; to reach beyond accepted norms in this manner. This he did after borrowing a book on math and the laws of motion;… More reviews
