Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest… (1995)

Interesting book on how the measurement of longitude was finally solved. Overall, it was good. His writing style is clear and straightforward. He crafted an interesting story from the historical records.

There were two things that drove me nuts, though. First and foremost, Sobel never included any photos of the clocks he was talking about, except on the cover. I had seen the time pieces in Greenwich, but it's been 20 years! I would have found the description much more meaningful and clear if I could have seen the timepieces again.

Second, he could have explained a bit more in detail about the mathematics involved, even if he put it in an appendix. I got the impression he fully understood the mathematics so I wonder if he was told explicitly by the publisher not to include it.

Despite it's flaws, I'm still glad I read it. ( )

The fascinating tale of how self-taught clock-maker John Harrison solved the mystery of the longitude problem with his marine timepieces and battled the establishment who still believed the answer lay in astronomy.

An interesting popular science/history book, tied together by the compelling story of Harrison. ( )

This is a great book. It's one of the excellent historical non-fiction books that is really well written and interesting, even if you're not normally interested in the subject. I can honestly say I have never once wondered about how longitude is determined, or why it matters. Until I read this book, it never occurred to me that longitude was not a historical constant like latitude. I had no idea there was this depth of history and tragedy in the story of determining longitude, and it was damned fascinating. This was well-written, engaging, and enlightening. In other words, awesome! ( )

What a great topic, and yet the prose and the storytelling was breathless in a bad way, and vapid, when it could have been so good. The story deserved better treatment. ( )

A great story (of John Harrison and the first deck watch) by a gifted storyteller. Was an unlikely best-seller ( )