LONGITUDE: THE TRUE STORY OF A LONE GENIUS WHO SOLVED THE GREATEST...
by Dava Sobel
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1088)
Read in August, 2007
I first read Longitude, by Dava Sobel, just after I finished high school, and I devoured it in a sitting or two. It was the first non-fiction book, I think, that I really couldn't put down.
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.
Background: Latitude lin...more
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.
Background: Latitude lin...more
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I read this book several years ago. It is relatively small but is very well detailed regarding the efforts made to solve the problem of measurement of longitude on seafaring voyages. In the 17th and 18th Centuries, England was in great need of a way to accurately travel to far-flung reaches of its empire. Measurement of latitude is a simple enough affair because each degree of latitude was equidistant from the equator. Measurement of longitude was a far thornier affair because degrees of lon...more
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Read in January, 2006
This was a short and very interesting read. I am a scientist and a bit of a history buff so this story very much appealed to me. Sobel mentioned in her Sources section at the end of the book that it was intended as a "popular account" rather than a "scholarly study" so I could excuse the lack of footnotes/endnotes and the clear bias toward Harrison's case rather than his detractors. It was clear that the story meant a lot to Sobel and it was really touching that she made that...more
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Read in April, 2006
recommends it for:
History-of-science and gadget geeks
To quote an esteemed LC history professor on the technical difficulties of pre-modern navigational technology: "Nowadays, you'd refer to that as being lost. But they actually thought they could get somewhere." Shortly after people discovered that the world was round and wanted to sail around it, they realized that they had no way of telling how far they'd gone and how close they were to where they wanted to be, as opposed to how close they were to the Bermuda Triangle, for example, o...more
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Read in January, 2008
A shiny pop-history book that the author convinced me would be really exciting to read in the first few chapters... but then became more and more disappointing as it went on and the feuds and so forth were actually detailed. If only she didn't spend so many words luring me in with all those promises. Did she really think I wouldn't read the book otherwise?
This book has a lot going on in its favor -- a genius premise with lots of fascinating, possibly unsubstantiated rabbit trails -- like t...more
This book has a lot going on in its favor -- a genius premise with lots of fascinating, possibly unsubstantiated rabbit trails -- like t...more
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Read in January, 2005
Not a lot of meat to this story. It’s enjoyable in a certain lazy Sunday afternoon reading fashion, but doesn’t encompass much beyond the tale of the invention of the first accurate pocket watch. Since the dawn of sea travel (and the need to know both latitude and longitude), the ability to tell time at two different locations simultaneously has been the crux of the issue. Through various astronomical tricks, latitude is fairly easy to accurately determine, regardless of global location. ...more
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I think that I could easily give this book five stars yet I think I must resist because although the book is very well written it can be very juvenile at times and simple in its explanations. Ironically, its for that exact reason that I would give it five stars, because I like to extract as much fact from non-fiction as possible yet I tend to forget key items when I become trapped in character development. Some authors I think get so wrapped up in their own personal thoughts as to what an amazin...more
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Read in November, 2001
Biography of Englishman, John Harrison, 1693 - 1776. Harrison solved the problem of measuring latitude by inventing a clock - actually three plus two "Pocket watches", which kept accurate time. Difficult to do in those years. Latitude could be determined through azimuth of the sun, moon or stars. Longitude could be determined by knowledge of how far you were from Greenwich "mean time". Parliament's "Longitutde Act", 1714 created a 4500 pound prize for a "p...more
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Read in January, 1996
It was the friend of a family friend who I only met once - for lunch in Manhattan - who told me about this book. They were so enthused by it that they insisted they walk me to a little bookshop somewhere in Greenwhich Village and buy me a copy as a present.
It sounds tedious: the story of the man who invented a clock that kept time accurately enough that sailors could at last keep track of where they were in terms of longitude as well as latitude. It was a goal that had evaded many for year...more
It sounds tedious: the story of the man who invented a clock that kept time accurately enough that sailors could at last keep track of where they were in terms of longitude as well as latitude. It was a goal that had evaded many for year...more
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Read in August, 2007
This is a fantastic book describing the astounding difficulties in navigation that in our age of GPS devices and accurate clocks seem quaint. However at the time the solution to accurately finding the longitude for a ship was very complex and extremely important. Many lives and boats were lost over the centuries, and the problem was finally solved not by "The Establishment" of the era but by a single person who relentlessly focused on doing what many other said could never be done. ...more
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Read in March, 2008
A short, breezy overview of the work of John Harrison, who created the first workable marine chronometer and his struggle to have his invention recognized by the Board of Longitude as the prize winner of the British Parliament's Longitude Act of 1714. This work does not delve deeply into the particulars of solving the longitude problem, but provides a look at the blockades and slights encountered by Harrison during his attempts to show that his method was truly reliable and more useful than the...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Sailors
I hope I'm related to the heroes in this book. John and his son William Harrison. Interesting that this guy held out for so long to claim the top prize. Also interesting that such a difficult-to-reproduce-technology did indeed win out after all - but the manufacturing improvements that made the clock possible are REALLY what brought the technology to use in the real world. Another - just as important - story in itself. This was a good audiobook and I liked it. The villainy of the villain w...more
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recommends it for:
historians
Again, a great book you can learn a lot from. Who has ever really thought about what effect the lack of a way to find longitude caused for sailors - first chapter you read about one ship that fought a storm for two months, thought they were 200 miles west of where they were, sailed north and then west, gave up after 4 days and sailed east only to realize a week later that they were within an hour of thier destination before they turned around. I love the connections this book makes- because they...more
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Read in April, 2008
A quick and engaging history of the chronometer (mariners' timekeeper). If I ever knew what a chronometer was before reading this book (doubtful), I don't know that I would have necessarily sought this book out. However, since the book was recommended by my husband and a good friend, I read it from cover to cover...in a day. Sobel makes the history accessible and lively, chronicling the age-old problem of finding longitude on the high seas from the Greeks to the inventor Harrison's day. I highly...more
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recommended to Blackest by:
the bookshelf in the kitchen
recommends it for: the mechanically inclined or otherwise curious. if you enjoy "mythbusters" you'd probably enjoy this
recommends it for: the mechanically inclined or otherwise curious. if you enjoy "mythbusters" you'd probably enjoy this
an exciting account that completely shattered my perception of a device that i've always entirely taken for granted. harrison's lifelong dedication to develop a solution to this problem is extremely impressive to me, especially considering that i feel like i live in a society where 90% of my generation's attention span is no longer than a commercial break. the book was well written and thoroughly engaging, but i found the lack of any diagrams/ blueprints/ schematics/ or even pictures very dishea...more
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Read in November, 2007
I haven't even finished it yet, but was interested enough by her writing style that I also bought "The Planets". She has a great way of keeping some very lofty topics grounded and accessible. I got interested in the subject of Longitude thanks to Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books which mentioned the search for a reliable way to find longitude at sea.
UPDATE:
OK, finished reading it. It's a small and tidy book that seems meager compared to the other books I've just finished. But...more
UPDATE:
OK, finished reading it. It's a small and tidy book that seems meager compared to the other books I've just finished. But...more
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Read in January, 2005
My introduction to the genre of "micro-history" that Dava Sobel started. This book at first glance appears to be about the invention of a clock, but really encompasses much more. She uses the race to build an accurate chronograph as a vehicle to explore the entire history of the time. From world exploration, world trade, and colonization to the ways that governments tried to get a technological edge over their competitors via astronomy and maritime navigation.
Her writing is fluid a...more
Her writing is fluid a...more
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Read in April, 2008
This is an excellent book. I learned a lot about navigation in the 1700's. I had no idea that longitude was such a problem. I knew the used the stars to steer, but had no idea that they couldn't use them to find their longitude, and how much loss and death that caused.
Then John Harrison spent 40 years of his live inventing and perfecting clocks that would keep accurate time despite the movement of the waves, and changes in humidity and temperature. He never got the recognition he deserved be...more
Then John Harrison spent 40 years of his live inventing and perfecting clocks that would keep accurate time despite the movement of the waves, and changes in humidity and temperature. He never got the recognition he deserved be...more
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Read in April, 2008
Suffers from a lack of detail regarding the science/mechanics of the problem and ultimate solution. While the dramatic conflict was interesting, the book only gave hints as to why this was "genius" aside from the fact that many of science's great minds had not found a solution. Diagrams would have really helps explain how watches work and what made these clocks revolutionary.
Really I think that this is best for a high school book report. It is reasonably short and provides ample ma...more
Really I think that this is best for a high school book report. It is reasonably short and provides ample ma...more
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Short book, easy read, and very interesting. With all of the traveling, backpacking, navigation and orienteering I do I had no idea how difficult of a problem it was in history to find longitude. I just look at my GPS or my map. I had always heard sailors found "by the stars". I come to find out, through this book, that was always the direction the solution was headed - and not for scientific reasons as much as for politics and greed. It took one man's life time to perfect accurac...more
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