About this title: In this title the author sets the stage by recounting the difficulties early navigators had in determining their exact longitude. After the loss of many ships and human lives, Parliament in 1714 offered a rich prize for a practical way to measure longitude at sea. John Harrison, an apparently self-taught English clockmaker undertook the task. Over a period of 40 years, he developed four increasingly precise chronometers capable of holding accurate time over a long sea voyage. Comparing the chronometer's time to the local sun time, a navigator could quickly measure the longitude with high ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, New York
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780140258790ISBN:0140258795
Description: Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Good clean flat paperback with only very light overall wear. light edge rubbing. pages clean and unmarked. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780140258790ISBN:0140258795
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 184 p. Audience: General/trade. Small spots on front cover. Edges of pages tanned. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780140258790ISBN:0140258795
Description: Very Good. First printing 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges. Age toning. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9781857025712ISBN:1857025717
Description: New. Slight shelf wear GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Walker & Company
Date Published: 1995-11-01
ISBN-13:9780802713124ISBN:0802713122
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. No tears or chips to the DJ, interior clean and bright, binding tight, a wonderful copy throughout. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Walker & Company
Date Published: 1995-11-01
ISBN-13:9780802713124ISBN:0802713122
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. No tears or chips to the DJ, interior clean and bright, binding tight, a wonderful copy throughout. read more
"A terrific biography of John Harrison, the eighteenth century horological genius who invented the chronometer (an accurate timepiece which allowed navigators to reliably fix their longitude anywhere in the world). Sailors had been determining their latitude (north-south position) by observing the heavens since ancient times, but longitude (east-west position) was always a different story (since the earth is in constant motion toward the east and there is no fixed reference point in the sky). Harrison devoted practically his entire life to the invention of his device. In addition to the engineering difficulties involved, he had to work against the very strong bias which existed at the time against some sort of mechanical solution and in favor of a solution based purely on astronomical observation. The story of how Harrison eventually proved them wrong-but almost lost anyway-is told here with delightful and engaging skill."
"Rivetting, fast read of the global pursuit of the solution to a navigation problem that improved our knowledge of astronomy, the speed of light and quite possibly created the British colonial empire. My one quibble: it needs illustrations. The somewhat arcane discussion of how to figure longitude by the celestial clock, in particular, and the tools developed for this approach would benefit from some pictures and diagrams: There are none. This isn't necessarily the author's fault, but it's the book that's being reviewed."
"This book had its moments. It definitely had an important historical story to tell. At times, though I found myself thinking that this is just a good story you hear in a museum or a history class.
That is not to downplay the importance of John Harrison's clock but just to say that it's a good story with some intrigue but I feel like I could've gotten the gist of the story much more quickly and not have lost that much.
Interesting, but a bit long maybe for anyone who isn't a nautical or clock making junkie."
"This is a fascinating account of the quest for a way to calculate one's relative east-west location on the globe and John Harrison, the genius clockmaker who figured it out. As with so many scientific breakthroughs, an effective method wasn't developed overnight. For over a century, scientists worked from different premises using different methods before one method became widely used. As always, politics played a large role into who got the credit and/or financial reward for the inventions. Harrison, whose chronometer was found to be the first method of accurately discerning longitude, fought a lifelong battle against snobbery and jealous rivals. Perhaps if the book had been read by a different person, I would have given it a higher rating. As it was, I grew increasingly irritated by Kate Reading's exaggerated Oxbridge accent. She never met an "a" she didn't like to draaaaah out or an "r" she wanted to sound. Most annoying were her idiosyncratic pronunciations of names, for example, Bonaparte as "Bohn-a-pah-tay" or Tyco (Brahe) as "Tuck-oo." As the last straw, she incorrectly used the Spanish pronunciation of Byron's "Don Juan." If you want to put on the dog, at least do your damn homework."
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