Longitude

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But the episodic nature of the chapters, and the abbreviated way she communicates the stories of the testing of H–3, H–4, etc. Since presenting his first chronometer, Harrison had been receiving stipends so that his work could continue, but the prize was elusive.

The story is one that has long been familiar to both naval historians and lovers of clocks, two introspective groups who had failed to bring it to a wider public. The (true) story is great: legendary historical figures like Isaac Newton, Galileo, James Cook, King George III; scientific conundrums; innovative engineering; a ransom of millions at stake; and a humble, lone man competing against oppressive and manipulative big-wigs. bestseller, is the elegant biography of the lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his times. Finally in 1884, representatives from 26 countries agreed at the International Meridian Conference to make the Greenwich meridian the world's prime meridian.Dava Sobel, like Simon Winchester or Canada's Pierre Berton, has clearly mastered the art of writing history in a form that is not only informative but, perhaps more important, is also compelling and entertaining. At that time astronomy was seen as the best route to a solution despite being time consuming and difficult. John Harrison is the father of marine chronometers, the precise timing instruments that allowed ships from the 1700s into the 1900s to navigate by longitude. By comparing the chronometer's time to local sun time, a navigator could precisely measure longitude. Over 40 years, he invented and produced four increasingly precise and compact chronometers capable of accurately measuring time over a long, rough sea voyage.

He/the Board adopted unscrupulous methods to thwart Harrison: sabotage, backstabbing, and theft of intellectual property. This elegant chronometer with its pretty detailing had been miniaturized down to a diameter of 5 inches. One scientist, Neville Maskelyne, was convinced the best solution — his solution — was in developing complex books of charts that closely tracked the Moon, planets, and stars. At the heart of Dava Sobel's fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and horology stands the figure of John Harrison, self-taught Yorkshire clockmaker, and his forty-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper. Possibly a model for a certain kind of non-fiction book, the type with very long sub-titles that are meant to cast light on a very short main title, the whole presumably being the original elevator pitch that the author made to the publisher.This is a non-fiction book, which describes why knowing longitude is so important for sea voyages, multiple ways its correct and precise estimation was suggested and finally a life and struggle of John Harrison, the inventor of chronometer.

I imagine the ’90s might’ve been the perfect moment to reflect back on a time when extreme accuracy in measuring time was a pipe dream ranked among human flight and space exploration.The answer lay in always knowing what time it was at an agreed-upon zero-meridian, as well as aboard the ship (by setting the local clock to noon when the sun was directly overhead). And Harrison was an instrument maker, very much a hands-on technician; his wasn’t a conceptual breakthrough but a technical one. One of the interesting solutions was presented by William Whiston and Humphrey Ditton, mathematicians and friends. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, ‘Longitude’ is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking. After 40 years of toil and tribulation, an aged and exhausted Harrison directly appealed to King George III.

the globe'' in a series of concentric circles that are smaller the farther they are from the equator. I’m not sure how to describe how lost you could be, out there on the ocean, no longer in sight of shore.

Dava Sobel, periodista científica, nos ofrece un relato claro y apasionante de un descubrimiento que cambió nuestra Historia para siempre. More than a simple puzzle that made academics scratch their heads, the problem of longitude affected society and the economy. Longitude is a tremendous tale of battling scientists and the perseverance of hard work, brilliance, and humility through political intrigue and greed.