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The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

by: Dava Sobel, William J. H. Andrewes, William J.H. Andrewes

: The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 526.6209
EAN: 9780802775931
ISBN: 0802775934
Label: Walker & Company
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: January 01, 2003
Publisher: Walker & Company
Sales Rank: 66248
Studio: Walker & Company



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Product Description:

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.



Amazon.com Review:
Dava Sobel's Longitude tells the story of how 18th-century scientist and clockmaker William Harrison solved one of the most perplexing problems of history--determining east-west location at sea. This lush, colorfully 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, worthy of a Hollywood feature film. Longitude's story is surprising and fascinating, offering a window into the past, before Global Positioning Satellites made it look easy. --Therese Littleton



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - A Wonderful Book
This is a book that I have enjoyed reading and viewing the great illustrations. I have learned so ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Longitude; long on interest
Longitude tells a fascinating, little-recalled history of the invention of navigational methods necessary ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Much better with Andrewes illustrations
I met William Andrewes at a talk about his longitude dial. Never read Dava Sobel before and found the text ... Read More


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Entertaining insight in longitude problemsolving
An easy to read and enjoyable (hi)story about the efforts that have been made in the past centuries to find ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - One way to describe persistence: William Harrison
As an "electronic geographer" (geographic information systems... computerized mapping... operator and manager), ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.