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Loading... Longitude (1995)by Dava Sobel (Author)
Work InformationLongitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel (1995)
  
Favourite Books (459) » 8 more No current Talk conversations about this book. This is the best kind of history and the best kind of science writing. It tells us readers about about people, history, technology, and all the other contexts we need to understand how navigators got the tools they needed to know where in the great oceans they were. (  ) mykl-s | May 29, 2023 |  While the story itself is an engaging one, I found the book overall to be a disappointment. The explanations of the astronomical methods for finding longitude and the workings of a watch were not detailed enough to provide a full understanding for those of us without any prior knowledge of the two subjects. I came away with a rough idea of both, but I certainly could not explain either one of them to somebody else. I would have appreciated a few diagrams and/or photographs of the instruments. I also found the narrative to be repetitive and the tone uneven. The author would introduce one of the characters and then a chapter or two later, mention them again as though it was their first appearance in the story. There also were a number of cliches and the individuals are not clearly differentiated. I'm not certain I am interested enough in the topic to try again, but I see there are several more recent books that have been published on the quest to find an accurate way to measure longitude and I would recommend you look at some of those books before deciding which to read. I think you can do better than this version of the story. (  ) PatsyMurray | Apr 21, 2023 | Non-fiction about the quest to develop a reliable method for measuring longitude. The first several chapters describe the difficulties encountered by ships attempting to navigate solely based on latitude. The focus then shifts to a biography of John Harrison, the 18th century clockmaker who attempted to solve this problem based on timekeeping. It also describes his primary competitor and adversary, Nevil Maskelyne, who was keen on proving that the best approach involved astronomical readings. They and many others vied for the monetary prize offered by the British government. Along the way, the author highlights some of the more outlandish ideas, one of which involves barking dogs! The book is far more than a scientific analysis of the problem of finding longitude. It portrays the intrigue, rivalries, conflicts, and accidental discoveries that make this book a fascinating reading experience. It is a story of the triumph of a perfectionistic genius of humble origins over the well-educated experts of the day. Recommended to those who, like me, enjoy stories related to travel by sea, voyages of exploration and discovery, and maritime adventures in days of yore. ( ) Castlelass | Oct 30, 2022 | Incredible story but there's something about Dava Sobel's writing that takes a while to adjust to. Otherwise, highly recommend. ( ) kevbre | Oct 24, 2022 | 7/10/22  laplantelibrary | Jul 10, 2022 |
 Ms. Sobel, a former science reporter for The New York Times, confesses in her source notes that ''for a few months at the outset, I maintained the insane idea that I could write this book without traveling to England and seeing the timekeepers firsthand.'' Eventually she did visit the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where the four clocks that James Harrison constructed are exhibited. She writes, ''Coming face with these machines at last -- after having read countless accounts of their construction and trial, after having seen every detail of their insides and outsides in still and moving pictures -- reduced me to tears.'' Such is the eloquence of this gem of a book that it makes you understand exactly how she felt.  Here's a swell little book that tells an amazing story that is largely forgotten today but that deserves to be remembered. It is the story of the problem of navigation at sea--which plagued ocean-going mariners for centuries--and how it was finally solved. It is the story of how an unknown, uneducated and unheralded clockmaker solved the problem that had stumped some of the greatest scientific minds. And it is the story of how the Establishment of the 18th Century tried to block his solution. The essential problem is this: In the middle of the ocean, how can you tell where you are? That is, how can you tell how far east or west of your starting point you have gone? Has the adaptationHas as a student's study guide
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