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Longitude
 
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Longitude (Paperback)

by Dava Sobel (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 189 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate; New Ed edition (4 Jun 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857025717
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857025712
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 10.4 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 272,639 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Science & Nature > Experiments, Instruments & Measurements > Time > Horology

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
The thorniest scientific problem of the 18th 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. --Amazon.com

Financial Times
Dava Sobel has written a gem of a book...one of the best reads for the non-scientific writing to come along for many a moon." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

41 Reviews
5 star:
 (16)
4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Anniversary edition of a surprise best seller, 10 Oct 2005
By Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Longitude (Paperback)
Dava Sobel's description of the search for an accurate means to measure longitude was a surprise best seller when first published. This latest, celebratory edition is prefaced by an introduction by Neil Armstrong. Does it add to the package?

Sobel took what was once an intractable problem - finding a means to work out precisely where you are - and turned it into a very readable account, making the history and science readily accessible to a popular readership. Working out latitude is not particularly difficult - the equator is a fixed point and observation of sun, stars, and length of day make it relatively easy to determine how far north or south you are.

But longitude? Because the earth spins (more or less) on a north/south axis, the two poles act as fixed points in space. There are no such fixed points on the equator - every point on the equator undergoes a complete revolution every twenty four hours. Longitude has always been problematic, and for the seafarer, that problem could easily prove fatal.

The solution came in the creation of clocks which would keep good enough time at sea, and the man responsible for their invention, Harrison, emerges from Sobel's book as a determined, driven man.

It's a fascinating little book, written in a highly accessible style. It's quite a quick read. It's a highly enjoyable read. It's also a stimulating read, and must have encouraged a few people to delve further into history and science.

But does it deserve a new edition? Well, the cachet of Armstrong's introduction is a reminder that long distance sea travel was once as dangerous as current space travel. It's unnecessary. Sobel's story is exciting enough, and will absorb you with or without an introduction. It remains an excellent little volume and a worthy publishing success - maybe it's time you read it again!

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Make time to read this, 15 Mar 1999
By A Customer
While Longitude is, on the surface of it, a book about scientific endeavour, its appeal is due to the story of a man's struggle against the prevailing thought of the time and the board set up to judge the award for the discovery of a method of determining longitude which was full of people with vested interests. The determination and drive of Harrison is awesome; if it was a novel you would find it difficult to believe. This is arguably the one book that has driven the much quoted trend towards science based books. While the media asks if this signals renewed interest in things scientific, the real answer is more likely that stories such as this are successful because they are about real people with real obstacles to overcome. Well worth a read; it won't take you long!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, but only part of the picture., 18 Aug 2006
By Adam Bell (Gloucestershire UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Longitude (Paperback)
This is an enjoyable book, but it is a pity that in making a good tale, the author has given such an unbalanced account. The Harrison chronometer was far from being the "solution" to the Longitude problem that Sobel implies. When Captain Vancouver sailed from England to the Pacific North West of America in the 1790's his two Harrison chronometers were showing times forty five minutes apart by the time he got there, making them useless. The "lunar distance method" gave the necessary correction. Captain Cook and his officers used lunar distances successfully in Australia, and when Joshua Slocum made his famous single handed voyage around the world, he carried a cheap alarm clock rather than chronometers because he used lunar distances. Enjoy the book, but look further, and look beyond crude hero and villain stereotypes!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars How not to tell a ripping historical yarn
Having enjoyed many historical stories about new discoveries or new explorations, I felt this book failed to hit the mark for many reasons. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Steve Milesworthy

4.0 out of 5 stars Battles on land to mark time at sea
This popular science account of huge changes in the 18th century has no pretensions to be a scholarly work. Read more
Published 3 months ago by John Holland

5.0 out of 5 stars Longitude
This was an excellant read and discovery of how the longitude problem was solved. It is very well written.
Published 5 months ago by T. Gardner

3.0 out of 5 stars Pride and Prejudice
Harrison seems to have been one of those people who is his own worst enemy; too proud to be successful. Read more
Published 9 months ago by William

5.0 out of 5 stars Tick Tock
The epic story on the search for the holy grail of maritime navigation, how to calculate longitude? This is the story and the unlikely triumph of an English genius who more or... Read more
Published 22 months ago by David I. Howells

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
Longitude does not at the outset seem a very interesting idea for a book but this is a mistaken assumption. Read more
Published on 6 Jul 2007 by HBH

5.0 out of 5 stars We cannot 'keep' time - only record its passing
A well researched, beautifully written history of the race to measure longitude. I get the feeling from this book that Harrison was probably the most altruistic of all the... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2006 by The Flying Scotsman

4.0 out of 5 stars Neither here nor there...
Dava Sobel writes with such clarity and passion for her subject that I found myself easily drawn into this engaging subject. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2006 by Frieda Sopa

1.0 out of 5 stars Massively overrated
This is an absurdly overrated book. Dava Sobel has found an interesting story that she is simply incapable of doing justice to. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2004 by J. E. Davidson

5.0 out of 5 stars You wont read a better book
This is one of the most competently told stories I have ever read. And itis a truly inspiring story. Really, make time to read it. Read more
Published on 22 April 2004 by sotonboy

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