Longitude

2010-07-05 Biography & Autobiography

Author : Dava Sobel
Release : 2010-07-05
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 433/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Longitude by : Dava Sobel

Download or read book Longitude written by Dava Sobel. This book was released on 2010-07-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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." 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. 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. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. 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. 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. 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.

The Illustrated Longitude

2008-10-08 Chronometers

Author : Dava Sobel
Release : 2008-10-08
Genre : Chronometers
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 321/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Illustrated Longitude by : Dava Sobel

Download or read book The Illustrated Longitude written by Dava Sobel. This book was released on 2008-10-08. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new illustrated edition of the best-selling Longitude chronicles the tale of the eighteenth-century inventor John Harrison, who created the chronometer and, in the process, saved thousands of lives and great fortunes. Reprint.

Illustrated Longitude

2003 Chronometers

Author : Dava Sobel
Release : 2003
Genre : Chronometers
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 250/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Illustrated Longitude by : Dava Sobel

Download or read book Illustrated Longitude written by Dava Sobel. This book was released on 2003. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fully illustrated edition of the international best-seller "Longitude." "The Illustrated Longitude" recounts in words and images the epic quest to solve the greatest scientific problem of the eighteenth and three prior centuries: determining how a captain could pinpoint his ship's location at sea. All too often throughout the ages of exploration, voyages ended in disaster when crew and cargo were either lost at sea or destroyed upon the rocks of an unexpected landfall. Thousands of lives and the fortunes of nations hung on a resolution to the longitude problem. To encourage a solution, governments established prizes for anyone whose method or device proved successful. The largest reward of 20,000-- truly a king's ransom-- was offered by Britain's Parliament in 1714. The scientific establishment-- from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton-- had been certain that a celestial answer would be found and invested untold effort in this pursuit. By contrast, John Harrison imagined and built the unimaginable: a clock that told perfect time at sea, known today as the chronometer. Harrison's trials and tribulations during his forty-year quest to win the prize are the culmination of this remarkable story. "The Illustrated Longitude" brings a new and important dimension to Dava Sobel's celebrated story. It contains the entire original narrative of "Longitude," redesigned to accompany 183 images chosen by William Andrewes-- from portraints of every important figure in the story to maps and diagrams, scientifc instruments, and John Harrison's remarkable sea clocks themselves. Andrewes's elegant captions and sidebars on scientific and historical events tell their own story of longitude, paralleling and illuminating Sobel's memorable tale.

Longitude

2007-11-05 Science

Author : Dava Sobel
Release : 2007-11-05
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 29X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Longitude by : Dava Sobel

Download or read book Longitude written by Dava Sobel. This book was released on 2007-11-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes.

Ships, Clocks, and Stars

2014-11-04 History

Author : Richard Dunn
Release : 2014-11-04
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 174/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Ships, Clocks, and Stars by : Richard Dunn

Download or read book Ships, Clocks, and Stars written by Richard Dunn. This book was released on 2014-11-04. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale of eighteenth-century invention and competition, commerce and conflict, this is a lively, illustrated, and accurate chronicle of the search to solve “the longitude problem,” the question of how to determine a ship’s position at sea—and one that changed the history of mankind. Ships, Clocks, and Stars brings into focus one of our greatest scientific stories: the search to accurately measure a ship’s position at sea. The incredible, illustrated volume reveals why longitude mattered to seafaring nations, illuminates the various solutions that were proposed and tested, and explores the invention that revolutionized human history and the man behind it, John Harrison. Here, too, are the voyages of Captain Cook that put these revolutionary navigational methods to the test. Filled with astronomers, inventors, politicians, seamen, and satirists, Ships, Clocks, and Stars explores the scientific, political, and commercial battles of the age, as well as the sailors, ships, and voyages that made it legend—from Matthew Flinders and George Vancouver to the voyages of the Bounty and the Beagle. Featuring more than 150 photographs specially commissioned from Britain’s National Maritime Museum, this evocative, detailed, and thoroughly fascinating history brings this age of exploration and enlightenment vividly to life.

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