Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (Paperback)
$12.25 - Save $1.75 12% off - RRP $14.00 Free shipping worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for Longitude Sobel presents the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of John Harrison's 40-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.
Full description- Publisher: WALKER & CO
- Published: 01 November 2007
- Format: Paperback 184 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Biography: Science, Technology & Engineering | Autobiography: Science, Technology & Engineering | History Of Engineering & Technology | Inventions & Inventors | Navigation & Seamanship | Ships & Shipping
- ISBN 13: 9780802715296 ISBN 10: 080271529X
- Sales rank: 31,881
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Full description for Longitude
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and 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 and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. "Longitude" is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
