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

by Dava Sobel

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

Longitude: The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time

Original publication date

1995

Important places

London, England, UK

Paris, France

Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK

Greenwich, England, UK

People/Characters

Ptolemy

Christopher Columbus

Galileo Galilei

Jean Dominique Cassini

Christiaan Huygens

(show all 18 items)

Awards and honors

"Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award" from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

British Book Award (Book of the Year, 1997)

Le Prix Faubert du Coton, France

La Cultura del Mare ()

The Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction (The Reader's List, 26)

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Book descriptions

Amazon.com (ISBN 0140258795, Paperback)

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.

(retrieved from Amazon Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:59:46 -0400)

(see all 4 descriptions)