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Then came John Harrison, the dedicated genius who devised the first seagoing chronometers (this is origin of the word). Isaac Newton touches on this story, as does Darwin, Captain Cook, King George III, Mason and Dixon (of the very famous Line), and even the notorious Captain Bligh.But what exactly is the relevance of telling this story of a fundamental navigational problem that was solved over 200 years ago. He solved the problem, but personal rivalries, scientific steadfastness (more correctly pigheadedness), and the vagaries and idiocy of bureaucracy kept him from his rightful prize and recognition for far too long.This is the story that Sobel tells. This is testament to a man of patience, and a meticulous one at that (one of Sobel's asides is Harrison's writing style, with and an introductory sentence that runs on for 25 pages). This title is Neil Armstrong's beautiful introductory analogy of what this entire book is about, the true story of longitude, "a fascinating tale of a remarkable achievement in timekeeping and navigation."Latitude, that is, the determination of north-south position, had been simple and reliable for centuries, but a simple and reliable method for finding east-west (longitude) had been difficult, well into the 1700s.
This story and Sobel's eloquent, fanciful, even loving descriptions of Harrison's timepieces themselves (complete with color plates showing them) has added the Greenwich Observatory to my bucket list. If you are looking for over-detailed obsession on every aspect of the story and copious academic notation, this is not the book for you. Sobel does, however, provide an extensive source listing and an index, making this book the perfect starting point for further detailed reading or research on the subject.Bottom line: I've been to London, but there are a number of sights there I have yet to see. The story flows well, and Sobel explains those subjects that require it, so no reader will be left behind.
As written, this book struck me as being very much like the outstanding old British Connections TV show, shedding light on a specific and apparently finite historical issue, but then showing the myriad fascinating, radiating spokes of the famous and infamous. The longitude problem persisted, and as empire's growth and security demanded increasingly efficient maritime navigation, the British Crown in 1714 offered a £20,000 prize to the man who could find a method for reliably and reproducibly determining it. This book is missing the overdone details and asides, the too common and too-long side- and backstories that many books of this type tend toward, where the main narrative loses its way or is buried in its related stories, as interesting as they may be. Harrison's story also is testament to a world with no electricity, no instant communications, no television or Internet, where literacy remained the domain of the upper classes, and where there was precious little to do with non-work day unless you had a consuming passion. The cable channels give us how-it's-made shows showing automated factories cranking out identical products to the tune of 100,000 per day, and it took Harrison five years to craft his first sea clock, just one device. The others, even with his growing experience and expertise, took even longer.
This is a good thing. I wondered this going in, as I picked up this book on the hearty recommendations of colleagues.
It is the story of the longitude problem, and it encompasses many disparate people and issues, but Sobel keeps it on-task, simple, straightforward and easy to follow. Sobel's simple and compelling tale of how "time is longitude and longitude time" makes me want to straddle the prime meridian, with feet in both hemispheres, and see the timepieces that changed modern seafaring, literally making possible the world we know today.
This tale is not just the story of John Harrison, nor is it his biography. An elaborate and complicated system involving lunar observation came about, but was laborious and calculation-intensive.
Sobel tells of selfless celestial observers dedicating decades of their lives to chronicling the positions of the sun, moon, and stars; their tedious devotion empowered the Western Hemisphere for rapid colonization, setting the stage for the Industrial Revolution, mass communication, and ironically the global marketplace.I found myself about halfway through the book taking note of what is NOT present in Sobel's book. The answer comes immediately (and I won't spoil it), before Sobel even begins, with Neil Armstrong's surprisingly good introduction.It's hard to picture a man who would take years to build a single clock.
It reads very easily, so for any who might be intimidated or fear this book is a nonstop chronicle of lofty scientific jargon and notation, don't be. In the era of GPS telling us how to drive the SUV three miles to the grocery store, how does this story continue to carry meaning.
It does it in a very interesting way. This is a great read. It explains why longitude was such an important science to the world.
These kicked like the hind legs of a leaping insect, quietly and without the friction that had bedeviled existing escapement designs." This is all that's said about it, so it wasn't at all clear to me how exactly an escapement worked, and I would have liked to know.Still, this was a fairly informative book, and probably worth reading, even if it's not anything outstanding. Sobel mentions various improvements that increased the accuracy of clocks, but I felt like most of the descriptions of the inner workings of clocks were a bit too vague to really give me an understanding of what goes on in there. For example, we learn that "the grasshopper escapement--the part that counted the heartbeats of the clock's pacemaker--took its name from the motion of its crisscrossed components. As the subtitle suggests, this is the story of the man, John Harrison, who came up with a workable method for finding longitude while at sea. A lot of people will probably be grateful for the fact that Sobel doesn't go into more scientific detail. I enjoyed reading about the eighteenth-century scientific community.I would have enjoyed reading a bit more about the actual science, too. He did this by means of a clock, while many other people favoured an astronomical solution, and there's some interesting description of the conflict between the two groups, which was probably increased by the fact that there was a huge monetary prize associated with finding a solution. This is a pretty light and quick read--actually a bit too light for my liking.
But we're told the solution found in his finished products even if we don't learn the process of how he got there.I found very interesting the overview of sea navigation at that time and the scientific advances that came about while in pursuit of the longitude prize money. (I didn't mind, though, since the clock innards were apparently confusingly complex so pictures of that wouldn't have been enlightening).Overall, I enjoyed this book.
blogspot. I'd recommend this quick read to anyone interested in an overview of the longitude problem, the solutions proposed, and how Harrison's clock eventually came to 'rule the seas.'Reviewed by Debbie from Different Time, Different Place Book Reviews (differenttimedifferentplace.
"Longitude" is an enjoyable, easy-to-read and understand overview of the events surrounding "the longitude problem," including the various solutions proposed, the political and scientific rivalry involved in the quest for the prize, and the scientific advances that occurred in pursuit of the solution.The book doesn't really go into depth on how the clock was created. The book doesn't contain pictures or diagrams beyond this.
com) Apparently no one really knows how John Harrison solved each challenge in keeping perfect time while at sea.
I also enjoyed learning why Greenwich became the 0 degree longitude line and time-setter for the world.While I thought the author did a wonderful job describing what the various clocks looked like, I'm glad that pictures of John Harrison and several of his clocks were shown on the front cover of the book.
It never really worked with the degree of accuracy that one needed to find a small island in the remote seas. I can also recommend Ms. Another great read by Dava Sobel, with complex technical, political, and historical issues boiled down to their essence. Unfortunately Harrison could have used a modern PR man to make his case, as he never did get his due credit, either in the scientific community or in the division of the royal prize money. His real Achilles heal was politics, as the scientific community viewed him as a mechanic when a visionary was needed.All in all a great read. This had been a problem since the first days of sailing, and had gotten to be more of an issue as ships became larger and more laden with valuable export goods and trained sailors. Trained navigators, equipped with telescopes and detailed charts of the stars, planets, and moons of the planets could calculate their longitude.
Unfortunately he was slow to promote his ideas, often needing a decade or so to make some minor improvements. Eventually he solved all the known issues of sea motion, temperature changes, lubrication, and accuracy to meet the royal requirements.
In the 18th century a series of naval mis-haps led the British Crown to set up a huge prize for the one who determined how to know your longitude while at sea. He had done a few commissioned clocks, some still running today, and determined that he could build an accurate and durable clock and watch.
Longitude is the story of the common man, self-educated and modest, who succeeded where the giants had failed. Others had more innovative solutions like networks of reference cannons and lights, or dogs that yelped when stuck with a needle.Harrison was a self-taught clock maker.
Sobel's book on Galileo, titled Galileo's Daughter, which puts surviving correspondence into a fascinating historical context. They say the meak will inherit the earth, but that will only happen if they are not all killed first.
Conventional wisdom, espoused by the likes of Sir Isaac Newtown was that the solution to the problem of the longitudes was found in the heavens.
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