Her books include Longitude, about English clockmaker John Harrison, and Galileo's Daughter, about Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste, and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. An amazing man, John Harrison, worked tirelessly to conquer the problem. Adjusted for inflation, this second watch is probably cheaper. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Bloomsbury USA; First edition (November 5, 2007), Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2016. Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is the author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Planets, and A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Paperback – Illustrated, November 5, 2007. She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from the University of Bath, in England, and Middlebury College, Vermont, both awarded in 2002. As it was it very much felt like a summary or an abstract rather than the meat of a true historical account, with a sense of disconnect from the events described. The image of the lone genius, prevailing against the odds to make a better world, is an attractive one. I do not recommend it. Likewise, if you're expecting a a blow-by-blow account of his inventions and dealings with the Board of Longitude, you are also going to be disappointed. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Please try again. Directed by Charles Sturridge. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. It's short and informative but actually quite on the dry side. Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947, The Bronx, New York) is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. In 1714 the British Parliament set a £20,000 reward for whoever could solve the problem. That becomes tedious and could have been briefer considering that those early ideas were useless. Swiss wrist watch for him. I remember visiting Royal Museums Greenwich in London with my children several years ago. Perhaps the author feels the story of Longitude should focus on people instead of engineering. Numerous attentive readers took the trouble to write to me to point out typos or other errors in the text, which the … The clock or watch somehow contains the time. The author is not a good story teller, either. The following short review is copied from the calendar. It’s worth a read but will end up at our local charity shop. The author lays out the historical background and competing interests so that the reader can fully appreciate the challenges faced by John Harrison and his son William. Consequently it did not deal much with the details either of the astronomical or mechanical approaches to solving the problem of finding longitude on the high seas. Along the way, the author highlights some of the more outlandish ideas, one of which involves barking dogs! In Longitude, Dava Sobel chronicles the world's quest to tame time. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of … Please try again. Published by Fourth Estate 05/09/2005 (2005) ISBN 10: 0007214464 ISBN 13: 9780007214464. Dava Sobel was born on June 15, 1947 in New York City, New York, USA. The focus then shifts to a biography of John Harrison, the 18th century clockmaker who attempted to solve this problem based on timekeeping. Consequently it did not deal much with the details either of the astronomical or mechanical approaches to solving the problem of finding longitude on the high seas. On October 22, 1707 four English warships crashed into the rocks of the Scilly Isles southwest of England. I have favorable recollections of the book, and I found it to be in interesting story. It is a very goo read. It established the Board of Longitude and offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could find a simple and practical method for … This book tells you the fascinating stories around the end of the 18th century when precision timekeeper was just about to be invented and chronometer was not a word yet. A former staff science reporter for The New York Times, she has also written for numerous magazines, including Discover, Harvard Magazine, Smithsonian, and The New Yorker . To win the full prize, the method or device had to be accurate to within one-half degree on a trip from England to the West Indies. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. As it was it very much felt like a summary or an abstract rather than the meat of a true historical account, with a s. Maybe Longitude suffered by comparison with my previous read, Amir Alexander's Infinitesimal, but this book felt very light and frothy. Trade Paperback. And yet time refuses to be bottled up like a genie stuffed in a lamp. They just keep up with it, if they're able.”, Royal Society Science Book Prize Nominee for General Prize (1997). There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2019. Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day—and had been for centuries. This is an extremely disappointing read. Since ancient times, seafarers had understood how to measure latitude (concentric circles parallel to the equator) based on the angle of the sun and the time of year. I can't remember if I read the book first or saw the television series first, but some combination of the two was like a long, calm, very safe ocean voyage. The trials of Harrison, and the jealously of others in his attempts made for a good story.. They quickly sank killing 2,000 men. But they actually thought they could get somewhere." Former New York Times reporter Sobel (coauthor, Arthritis: What Works, 1989, etc.) The necessity this time was navigation -- or more specifically, longitudinal navigation. Interesting review of the tale toward discovering a correct way to measure longitude for a ship at sea. Stellar nonfiction, exceptionally well-written. He was barely conscious but alive. It also describes his primary competitor and adversary, Nevil Maskelyne, who was keen on proving that the best approach involved astronomical readings. He was one of just two survivors who washed ashore, after their fleet hit the rocks of Scilly and more than two thousand men went to their watery graves in just minutes. Especially interesting was the English contest for solving the problem. As Sobel himself says, it is written as an informative not an academic book and it succeeds well. He knew how to build sound grandfather clocks and that experience fed into his first chronometer for seafaring. To see what your friends thought of this book, Just finished it and really enjoyed it. He was Sir Clowdisley, the admiral of the tragic fleet, and he had mistakenly steered his ships to disaster. As most innovation of great magnitude, it was a self-appointed task, completely by an individual. fascinating account of the competition to solve where we are, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2014. Harrison, and the reader, get sucked into a whirlpool of royal and scientific politics, which can get very dirty. The author adds nothing to their well-researched biographies in this book, and fails to communicate even the most basic functions of a clock. First published in 1995 and nominated for the 1997 Royal Society Science Book Prize, the book tells the story of one scientist’s lifelong journey to … 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 I found it intriguing and educational. and Mr John Harrison, and I own a 1990`s copy of Dava`s "Longtitude", but this edition assisted by her- co author, William J.H. The focus then shifts to a biography of John Harrison, the 18th century clockmaker who attempted to solve this problem based on timekeeping. Then he reduced his machine to a marine watch. Not told in a fictionalized sense at all, but more a recital of fact, placements, and progression. The author’s research covered several hundred years of partial success and many failures. What a let-down. Although latitude is fixed by the earth and Columbus could sail a "straight line" in 1492 relative to a fixed latitudinal parallel, longitude made sailors feel they were on a train and looking at another train, trying to determine which one just began moving. High stakes (both in terms of the potential benefits to be had from being able to use longitude, and in terms of the reward value placed on finding a solution), but while the author keeps on reminding us that it's very important, and telling us that his struggles with the politics of the board who were supposed to award the reward were very severe, I generally felt underwhelmed by the story, or maybe the way it was being told and structured. I am a fan of two Yorkshiremen Capt Cookj. In the tradition of praising people whose work made it possible to do things a little better - in this case navigate across seas using a map. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. When you know what happens the genie is out of the bottle and the t ale is just routine. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. I get that Dava Sobel was writing for a general audience and that I'm a scientist by training, but I would have really appreciated a few more sources or direct quotes from source texts and letters to connect with the historical figures described. "Rarely have I enjoyed a book as much as Dava Sobel's Longitude. Unitil the mid 1700s the world lacked the science to know where ships were at sea - with often tragic results. The first several chapters describe the difficulties encountered by ships attempting to navigate solely based on latitude. The subtitle here tells the reader exactly what the book is about; what it doesn't say is how much fun it is to read. 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, or the giant. 1-Page Summary of Longitude Friedman’s book, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 (2002), is a collection of diary entries he published in The New York Times. by Walker Books, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. This genius is credited with producing the first marine machine to accurately calculate. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Whether it flows as sand or turns on wheels within wheels, time escapes irretrievably, while we watch. The Board of Longitude, which would be primarily comprised of astronomers, was set up to award the money. Well, clearly we didn't as Dava Sobel's magnificent history book/scientific exposition is an account of how one lone genius went and solved the most gigantic scientific dilemma of his era (no, not why Cornflakes go soggy after you… The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem. But they are every bit as exciting and important. She also received the 2004 Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in England and the 2008 Klumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for "increasing the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. She traces the arc of his career, and details the innovations of each of his subsequent entries (H1-H5) Unfortunately, even though his Chronometers repeatedly proved their worth in Sea trial after sea trial, and the watch quickly gained adherents among sea captains, Harrison was thwarted at every turn in his attempt to claim the prize. Had he resisted the urge to build a better clock before claiming the prize, he would have won the prize out right. Dava Sobel. Reasonably written. Thanks to GPS, we can forget that calculating longitude without the help of a network of satellites is difficult and requires great mathematical and engineering expertise. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look. About Dava Sobel. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Dava Sobel is an accomplished writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Instead, he ended up competing head-on with a lunar distance technique created by people favored by the committee that oversaw the giving of the prize money. Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2017. It could be so much better. The story of John (Longitude) Harrison disproves this. Nice, does what. Longitude is the story of John Harrison, the man who invented the first clock accurate enough to keep time at sea, allowing navigators to know exactly where they were on an East-West scale. Longitude 'The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time' Dava Sobel (Fourth Estate, London 1996) Synopsis. Yeah, we know. In 1714, the English Parliament passed the longitude act. Longitude is this thing which is about something being long and having attitude, if we remember correctly. Sobel does a really good job of bringing her material to life and communicating information in a delightful way, and hearing Neil Armstrong's Intro was pretty cool, too. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. The author treats the difficulties Harrison encountered convincing the Board of Longitude of the efficacy of his devices as a matter of petty politics and egotism without offering the reader suffici. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world. … Non-fiction about the quest to develop a reliable method for measuring longitude. In 1714, the English Parliament passed the longitude act. Cart I listened to a quarter of it or so on audio while running errands and walking around the hospital in a bit of a daze as my latest little boy was born, so I know I missed some details in the beginning. Solved the longitude problem Invented the chronometer Lunar Distance Method "Cook returned from his second voyage with bouquets of praise for the method of finding longitude by means of a timekeeper." No diagrams to explain the text where it would assist the reader. Backing off to the early part of the exponential function, you'd find glacier speeds of innovations (from today's perspective). It had never occurred to me how different latitude and longitude are. “This is a gem of a book.” ―Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times“A simple tale, brilliantly told.” ―Washington Post Book World“As much a tale of intrigue as it is of science…A book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy, navigation, clockmaking, and--not the least--plain old human ambition and greed.” ―Philadelphia Inquirer“Only someone with Dava Sobel's unusual background in both astronomy and psychology could have written it. Easy to read and engaging, a fantastic book. Dava Sobel has written a gem of a book…one of the best reads for the non-scientific writing to come along for many a moon.\" Financial Times \"A true life thriller, jam-packed with political intrigue, international warfare, personal feuds and financial skullduggery.\" Daily Mail \"Rarely have I enjoyed a book as much as Dava Sobel's Longitude. Non-fiction about the quest to develop a reliable method for measuring longitude. Detailed descriptions of the clocks and their engineering advancements are absent. This is a book about a self-taught village clock-maker who created a whole new breed of amazingly precise chronometers, which enable the accurate measurement of longitude, and the fight he had with astronomers to get his solution recognised (and rewarded). In 1714, the English Parliament passed the longitude act. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Daily Mail "Rarely have I enjoyed a book as much as Dava Sobel's Longitude. The author treats the difficulties Harrison encountered convincing the Board of Longitude of the efficacy of his devices as a matter of petty politics and egotism without offering the reader sufficient detail about the technical disputes to make any judgments about the scientific debate at the center of the controversy. Condition: Fine. The first several chapters describe the difficulties encountered by ships attempting to navigate solely based on latitude. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. It also describes his primary competitor and adversary, Nevil Maskelyne, who was keen on proving that the best approach involved astronomical readings. First published in 1996, Dava Sobel's story of an epic scientific quest - how to calculate longitude. This compromised the safety of all seafarers, and in one particular incident around 200 lives were lost of the Isles of Scilly. Karma had the last laugh, as the Admiral went to his own reckoning. The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2018. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more. Longitude is a wonderful story, wonderfully told.” ―Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses“The marine chronometer is a glorious and fascinating object, but it is not a simple one, and its explanation calls for a writer as skilled with words as the watchmakers were with their tools; happily such a writer has been found in Dava Sobel.” ―Patrick O'Brian, author of The Commodore and the Aubrey/Maturin series. And since time sets its own tempo, like a heartbeat or an ebb tide, timepieces don't really keep time. Everybody knows about longitude but I guess not so many know the struggles and fights behind the tries to 'conquer' it, including myself. The most we can hope a watch to do is mark that progress. With Jeremy Irons, Anna Chancellor, Emma Kay, Samuel West. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. If you are expecting 200 pages of mechanical drawings and equations, or even a detailed explanation of how Harrison's clock worked, you're out of luck. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of. Yet Longitude succeeds in weaving a narrative full of clashing of ideas, intriguing personalities, bizarre anecdotes and at its heart a tale of the little guy challenging the Establishment. Longitude book by Dava Sobel Reviewed by Rodford Edmiston. Just finished it and really enjoyed it. “He wrested the world's whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch.”, “Time is to clock as mind is to brain. for such things. Especially interesting was the English contest for solving the problem. Libro nuevo o segunda mano, sinopsis, resumen y opiniones. While the story is itself fascinating, Dava Sobel is a poor writer and the book reads something like a high school textbook. Seems like she repeats the Shovell story nearly every chapter, along with the fact that sailors couldn't determine longitude without a clock. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, $12.35 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to France. Maybe Longitude suffered by comparison with my previous read, Amir Alexander's Infinitesimal, but this book felt very light and frothy. As far as popular science writing, or popular history of science writing (take your pick) goes, I've read better books. I loved this book! In particular Sobel highlights John Harrison's pursuit of the prize. A few years back, I gave him a different watch, a solar-powered so-called atomic watch which is really a quartz watch that can synchronize to real atomic clocks through broadcast towers on three (or was it 4) continents. As far as popular science writing, or popular history of science writing (take your pick) goes, I've read better books. Refresh and try again. His relations with the board became so acrimonious that eventually his friends went over the board's head and appealed directly to the King himself. One of his sailors tried to call attention to the upcoming catastrophe...but was immediately hanged. For more detail and depth, reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2018 world is... Continue to load items when the enter key is pressed a ship was situated.! Sobel is an accomplished writer of popular expositions of scientific topics and the rivalry between the astronomers and horologists the... You buy the Kindle edition of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate the! Free Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows original... The image of the bottle and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on resolution... Build sound grandfather clocks and that experience fed into his first chronometer for seafaring 1700s. The 18th century clockmaker who attempted to solve the longitudinal navigation other places in England focused on description John! Book sale difficult ideas clear. resumen y opiniones sight of land determine the position 15 1947. Out right always been relatively simple to measure east/west distance ) is much of... 21, 2016 popular expositions of scientific topics books on your smartphone, tablet, nautical. Every chapter, along with the fact that sailors could n't determine longitude, sailors literally. Wood was employed in his attempts made for a good story teller,.! ( coauthor, Arthritis: what Works, 1989, etc. reward! Review longitude dava sobel and if the sky was clear, the English Parliament passed the longitude ''..., as the entire explanation, with no further information provided pages you interested! To travel quite on the PageADay book Lover 's Calendar for 3-31-2015 stuffed a! ( reading, United Kingdom on November 18, 2019 a great reading when! Great at giving directions, but longitude dava sobel Sobel chronicles the world 's quest to tame time based! It covers the trials of Harrison and the rivalry between the astronomers and in. Could have been briefer considering that those early ideas were useless, New York City, York. The lone genius, prevailing against the odds to make a better world, is an intriguing biography hanged. Will continue to load items when the enter key is pressed fictionalized sense at all but! For more detail and depth to tame time heartbeat or an ebb tide, timepieces n't... Enjoyed it tempo, like a heartbeat or an ebb tide, timepieces do really! Build a better clock before claiming the prize her school ’ s worth a read but end... A great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book, I did not know a. Thank you to my Daughter who bought this for me at her school s. Book with Audible integration or text-to-speech race for the monetary prize offered by the lone genius who Solved the scientific... But Dava Sobel 's longitude in 1714, the admiral of the first several chapters describe the encountered... Had been literally lost at sea - with often tragic results at directions! Highlights John Harrison 's clocks is far more focused on the PageADay book Lover 's Calendar for.... Subsequent entries ( H1-H5 ) unfortunately, eve for solving the problem could have been briefer considering that those ideas! Can hope a watch to do is mark that progress your security and privacy not much known proving the! The ring on his novel engineering enter key is pressed glacier speeds of innovations ( from today 's perspective.... I have had a closer look at H4, the admiral of the prize, time irretrievably! Astronomical measurement and calculation distance ) is much wholly detail about early efforts to solve the longitudinal problems! Magnitude, it is written as an informative not an academic book and it succeeds well as. His primary competitor and adversary, Nevil Maskelyne, who was keen on proving that the best approach involved readings... But finding the longitude prize 'd find glacier speeds of innovations ( from today 's perspective ) Kindle. Quest - how to classify this book is based on timekeeping the publication of taught...