The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history. An exciting scientific adventure from the days of wooden ships and iron men, longitude is full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd. The 10th anniversary edition of this classic book has now been released with a new foreword by neil armstrong. The history of longitude is a record of the effort, by astronomers, cartographers and navigators over several centuries, to discover a means of determining longitude the measurement of longitude is important to both cartography and navigation, in particular to provide safe ocean navigation. With jeremy irons, anna chancellor, emma kay, samuel west. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 192 pages and is available in hardcover format. Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that the long.
Sobel tells his story and the larger history of the search for longitude clearly, entertainingly, and with a fine sense of the era in which it took place. The longitude act was an act of parliament that offered money in return for the solution to the problem of finding a ships precise longitude. Longitude is a measurement of location east or west of the prime meridian at greenwich, the specially. To determine your exact location you also need to measure your line of longitude. In 1998, the illustrated longitude was published, supplementing the earlier text with 180 images of characters. The measurement of longitude is important to both cartography and navigation, in particular to provide safe ocean navigation. Stern latitude and longitude any location on earth is described by two numbersits latitude and its longitude. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison, an 18thcentury clockmaker who. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time 10th anniversary ed by sobel, dava isbn. Finding latitude is easy, simply take the angle between the horizon of the sun at noon or polaris at night, adjust for the date, and you know where. John harrison arrived in london, looking for both support and the rewards promised by the 1714 longitude act. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time by dava sobel. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, it is also a fascinating brief history.
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that the longitude. Breezily written and full of fascinating characters and facts, heres a science book as enjoyable as any novel. This book was written in a way that a person with no scientific. Michael sims is the author of darwins orchestra henry holt. The biggest peril to ships for most of history the new york times. She described the life of john harrison who discovered how to. Sobel has done the impossible and made horology sexy no mean feat new scientist anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that the longitude.
The publication of longitude taught me that a book can actually improve by virtue of being read. Numerous attentive readers took the trouble to write to me to point out typos or other errors in. Dava sobel is the bestselling author of longitude, galileos daughter, and the planets, coauthor of the illustrated longitude, and editor of letters to father. The book was made into a television series entitled longitude. It is also a captivating brief history of astronomy, navigation. Longitude, by american writer dava sobel, is the true story of the quest to devise a reliable navigational instrument for sailors. Beginning with harrisons childhood, borden presents biographical tidbits that bring the man to life, show how he. Kate readings narration is accurate and clear, and lends itself well to the story. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of harrisons fortyyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. In two parallel stories, the clockmaker john harrison builds the marine chronometer for safe navigation at sea in the 18th century and the horologist rupert gould becomes obsessed with restoring it in the 20th century. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of harrisons forty epubyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. The longitude act was an act of parliament that offered money in return for the solution to the problem of finding a ships precise longitude at sea.
Mariners and explorers for most of history struggled to determine longitude. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of harrisons fortyyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison, an 18thcentury clockmaker who created. Librarything is a cataloging and social networking site for.
The subtitle here tells the reader exactly what the book is about. Dava sobel dava sobel longitude harpercollins publishers longitude book pdf longitude book summary longitude e book longitude e book download longitude epub longitude pdf longitude pdf download longitude read longitude short summary longitude subject longitude. May 17, 2014 john harrisons timekeeping devices changed nautical history. The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest. In this study, richard stachurski chronicles the amazing tale of discoveries made by american scientists as they worked to solve the lifethreatening quandry faced by mariners of having accurate navigational charts, and to develop a precise method of measuring longitude.
The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison, an 18thcentury clockmaker who created the first clock chronometer sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at seaan important development in navigation. Even as their seapower waned, portugals prime meridian was the worlds standard until the english achieved became the dominate sea power in the world and cracked the longitude. The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine. The measurement of longitude is important both to cartography and for ocean navigation. This explains how john harrison, discovered how to determine. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world. Calculating longitude astro navigation demystified. Youll find fascinating works on the origins of chinese, greek, and japanese mathematics.
Search the history of over 424 billion web pages on the internet. Dava sobel without the ability to measure longitude the great age of exploration was marked by the number of sailors lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ultimately, it also proves the point that genius or success my addition is one per cent. The starshaped map measures just fivebythree inches and shows the.
The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time, dava sobel writes that the trick for remembering the difference is that the latitude lines, the parallels, really do stay parallel to each other as they girdle the globe in a series of concentric circles that. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison, an 18thcentury clockmaker who created the first clock sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at seaan important development in navigation. The first edition of the novel was published in 1995, and was written by dava sobel. Up until the 18th century, half of navigation was done by chance. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest. Z ero longitude was first located in the portuguese madeira islands and for the next 300 years the world calculated longitude from those portuguese islands. Longitude is a great retelling of a carefully researched niche in the history of mans quest for.
Numerous attentive readers took the trouble to write to me to point out typos or other errors in the text, which the publisher then corrected in subsequent editions. A book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy. Some people have liked this book more than galileos daughter but they are really two different kinds of books. The book has been awarded with royal society science book prize nominee for general prize 1997, and many others. The greek astronomers could measure latitude as early as the third century b. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time, dava sobel writes that the trick for remembering the difference is. It was the greatest scientific problem of the time. Oct 30, 2007 the publication of longitude taught me that a book can actually improve by virtue of being read. Jul 22, 2019 longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of harrisons fortyyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.
The history in 1714 the british government threw down the gauntlet to solve the greatest scientific challenge of the century how to pinpoint a ships location at sea by knowing its longitude. Based on the bestselling book longitude by dava sobel, the program tells the story of how an unknown genius, john. I found it to be a very interesting book because, it is not like most history books. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking. The illustrated longitude is the history of how clocks and watches developed, how our concepts of time changed, how britannia came to rule the waves, and how one determined human being altered the course of history. Christopher lehmannhaupt, new york times a simple tale, brilliantly told. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time pdf epub book. Although the longitude problem baffled the great minds of the day, a selftaught clockmaker named john harrison found a solution. Featured texts all books all texts latest this just in smithsonian libraries fedlink us genealogy lincoln collection. Longitude is a superb book about the quest to solve one of the most difficult scientific challenges of the 17th and 18th centuries, and one, moreover, that caused thousands of deaths. Jun 14, 2014 all history books should be so engaging my paternal line scottish greatgreatgrandfather, william brydone jack, was a pioneer in longitude in during the victorian era, helping determine the first precise longitude in canada using the telegraph with a fellow scientist at harvard, so when i saw this book pop up at bookbub, i knew i had to check it out. The history of longitude is a record of the effort, by astronomers, cartographers and navigators over several centuries, to discover a means of determining longitude. Longitude is a great retelling of a carefully researched niche in the history of mans quest for technological achievement while galileos story much like nabokovs is the retelling a story from different point of view.
The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of john harrisons fortyyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Finding a method of determining longitude took centuries, resulting in the history of longitude. Longitude is a book thats worth reading and rereading to learn how ideas can be turned into fact. If a pilot or a ships captain wants to specify position on a map, these are the coordinates they would use. Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the kindle edition of this book. Washington post book world as much a tale of intrigue as it is of sciencea book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy, navigation, clockmaking, andnot the leastplain old human ambition and greed. Longitude is a dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and harrisons fortyyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.
Even as their seapower waned, portugals prime meridian was the worlds standard until the english achieved became the dominate sea power in the world and cracked the longitude problem. Aug 22, 2018 historys earliest known world map was scratched on clay tablets in the ancient city of babylon sometime around 600 b. Longitude from dava sobel is a fascinating account of how a virtually unknown watchmaker named john harrison conquered one of the oldest and thorniest problems surrounding the ocean voyages the problem of accurately measuring longitude, which stumped even the best of scientific minds for centuries. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about. Great minds had tried for centuries to develop a method of determining longitude. Dava sobel dava sobel longitude harpercollins publishers longitude book pdf longitude book summary longitude e book longitude e book download longitude epub longitude pdf longitude pdf download longitude read longitude short summary longitude subject longitude summary. John harrisons h4 clock how longitude was found royal. Dava sobel born june 15, 1947 is an american writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. It is also a captivating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking. The search for longitude, originally broadcast on october 6, 1998.
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