num_pages: 198
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.The quest for a solution had occupied scientists for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, England's parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (£20,000, or approximately $12 million in today's currency) to anyone whose method or device proved successful and reproducible. The scientific establishment throughout Europe—from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton—had mapped the heavens in its pursuit 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 ever been able to do on land.Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison’s forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and absurdity, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking. Through Dava Sobel's consummate skill, Longitude opens many new windows on our world.
language: English
title: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
titlecomplete: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
genres: Historical, Biography, Geography, Technology, Science, Nonfiction, Popular Science, Travel, History Of Science, History
ratings_count: 69872
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Royal Society Science Book Prize
category: General Prize
publisher: Bloomsbury USA