Longitude by Dava Sobel

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel (Author), Neil Armstrong (Foreword). On its 10th anniversary, a gift edition of this traditional ebook, with a ahead by one in every of history's best explorers, and eight pages of coloration illustrations.

Anyone alive in the eighteeth century would have known that "the logitude drawback" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and had been for centuries. Lacking the flexibility to measure their longitude, sailors all through the nice ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as quickly as they overlooked land. 1000's of lives, and the rising fortunes of nations, held on a resolution.

The scientific establishment of Europe--from Galileo to Sir Issac Newton--had mapped the heavens in each hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to think about a mechanical resolution--a clock that may preserve percise time at sea, something no clock had ever been in a position to do on land. Longitude is a dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and Harrison's forty-yr obsession with building his good timekeeper, identified at this time as the chronometer. Stuffed with heroism and chicanery, it is usually an enchanting temporary history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a brand new window on our world.

Dava Sobel has written a phenomenal e-book about a topic that in a lesser writer's fingers could have been exceedingly boring. The need for a clock which would accurately maintain time while on a sea voyage with a view to help mariners decide their longitude and thus precisely determine the place they might land does not appear to be it will be that exciting. Nevertheless, Sobel has given a beautiful account of the problems that have been encountered with out this system and the way John Harrison, a clock maker, was decide to resolve this downside with an accurate time piece that could possibly be used even on ships.

The tremendous difficulties that Harrison had in convincing the British government authorities that he had certainly solved the issue are fascinating and but his endurance in fixing this downside is almost heroic. Apparently, red tape and professional jealously are timeless qualities of human nature. This slim e-book offers an interesting glance right into a topic which in all probability few have ever thought about. I'd suggest this book extremely to anybody who likes to know the story behind scientific discoveries which now seem almost quaint.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time 

Dava Sobel (Author), Neil Armstrong (Foreword)

192 pages

Walker & Company; ANNIVERSARY EDITION edition (September 15, 2005)

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