num_pages: 200
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. Finally, in 1714, Parliament offered a king's ransom to anyone whose method or device proved successful.Longtitude is the dramatic story 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 a fascinating best-selling brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking.
language: English
title: Longitude
titlecomplete: Longitude
genres: Biography, Technology, Popular Science, History, Science, Geography, Historical, Nonfiction, Travel, History Of Science
ratings_count: 69866
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Royal Society Science Book Prize
category: General Prize
publisher: ISIS Large Print Books