The tenth anniversary edition of the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude & the unlikely triumph of an English genius With a new Foreword by the celebrated astronaut Neil Armstrong Sobel has done the impossible & made horology sexy
- no mean feat' New Scientist Anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that the longitude problem' was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day
- & had been for centuries Lacking the ability to measure their longitude sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land Thousands of lives & the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution The quest for a solution had occupied scientists & their patrons for the better part of two centuries when in 1714 Parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (GBP20000) to anyone whose method or device proved successful Countless quacks weighed in with preposterous suggestions The scientific establishment throughout Europe
- from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton
- had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer In stark contrast one man John Harrison dared to imagine a mechanical solution Full of heroism & chicanery brilliance & the absurd LONGITUDE is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy navigation & clockmaking