![]() ![]() After finishing Longitude, one is struck again by the extreme contingency of our luck in receiving Harrison into this world at the time and place and manner in which we did. ![]() Sobel’s book provides us with a gripping account of the stubborn and persistent Englishman who never lost faith in the ability of his mechanical device to solve the longitude problem. ![]() Dava Sobel’s short and sweet book Longitude, coming in at a crisp 175 pages, transports the reader to the perils of international navigation that plagued explorers, merchants, and the general commerce of European empires in absence of a measure of longitude before the late 18th century. My first exposure to his story came from the 3-part series produced by the BBC, with Harrison played by the very capable Michael Gambon. Informed and scientifically minded persons are generally aware that John Harrison was a man who solved the longitude problem by the use of very precise clocks in the 18th century. ![]()
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