 The Illustrated Longitude
Dava Sobel
Dava Sobel's Longitude tells the story of how 18th-century
scientist and clockmaker John
Harrison solved one of the most perplexing problems of history,
determining east-west location at sea.
This colourfully illustrated edition adds lots of pictures to the
story, giving readers a more satisfying sense of the times, the players,
and the puzzle. This was no obscure, curious difficulty--without
longitude, ships often found themselves so far off course that sailors
would starve or die of scurvy before they could reach port. When a
nationally-sponsored contest offered a hefty cash prize to the person who
could develop a method to accurately determine longitude, the race was on.
In the end, the battle of accuracy, and wills, fought between Harrison and
arch-rival Maskelyne
was ruthless and dramatic.
Longitude's story is surprising and fascinating, offering a
window into the past, before Global Positioning Satellites made it look
easy.
Here is an illustrated version of a universally acclaimed work
published in 1995 |
