Rating: 
Summary: Mercifully brief......
Review: Occasionally a "popular" treatment of a serious subject will surprise a reader with its unexpected depth, its knowledge of the material, its ability to anticipate the pressing question, its facility in explaining the motives of the characters involved or the historical context. In addition, some even manage to be entertaining. David Duncan's Calendar comes to mind, for one.Unfortunately, Longitude seemed true to form as a "popular" book. John Harrison, the "Lone Genius" whose "true story" is being told, is flat and without motive. An moderately detailed discussion of navigational technique might have been extremely helpful in establishing the actual extent of the problem. All told, I came away with what I'd expect from a middling encyclopedia article. Thankfully, the book was short enough that I was done with it before I realized it was a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: homage to a great inventor
Review: Longitude is a rather simple book which discusses the "longitude problem" (ie, the problem pre-1750 mariners had in determining their location), the intriguing ways folks tried to solve the problem, and the man who eventually did it (by inventing an accurate chronometer). I enjoyed the book because: - it taught me about the longitude problem, and its impact on the world (especially commerce) - it inspired me with the tale of the uneducated man who solved the problem through a lifetime of perserverence. While Longitude doesn't bury the reader with technobabble, folks with an engineering/scientific acumen will probably enjoy it most. I wouldn't recommend the book to children under 15. Bottom line: simple book, great story. It will make you want to visit Greenwich if you come to London. Being a London resident, I'll be there next week!
Rating: 
Summary: Long-lost Longitude
Review: This book's charms are seductive. Sobel is a gifted writer who can explain complex things simply and her book is short and easy to read. The publishers also deserve praise for presenting the book beautifully with an attractive and clever cover. The story is straightforward. Sobel outlines the quest to solve the great maritime riddle that bedevilled the world's maritime nations in the 16th to 18th centuries. In an age without satellites, ships got lost because captains could not accurately pinpoint their position. Sailing north or south was generally ok. But knowing how far to go east or west - determining longitude - that was a problem. With the British government offering a generous bounty to the person that could untie this nautical knot, a humble gentleman from rural England appeared to have found the answer. John Harrison, a clock maker, claimed to have produced a timepiece accurate and sturdy enough to assist in the calculation of longitude. But alas for poor John there were fiends in high places, with their own barrows to push, that sought to obstruct him from claiming the prize. Sobel shows how, in the end, the right guy won in this story of cavernous 18th century egos, international rivalries and political intrigue. But while we want to cheer our hero's success, there are elements of Sobel's telling of the story that I found disappointing. The structure of the book I think is partly to blame. The paperback version is short, a little over 180 pages arranged in 15 neat chunky chapters. Surprisingly, for such a short book Sobel uses the first chapter to provide a synopsis of the story. It is a good overview but perhaps too good. Without going beyond that opening bit the reader knows the key elements of the story and who won. Has Sobel erred by showing her hand too early? Shouldn't she have teased and played with our expectations more? And does the reader get to know the story's main actor, Mr Harrison, maker of clocks - what makes him tick? Sobel lists several apparently biographical works on Harrison as sources for her book. Rarely, however, does she offer any insights into "Longitude" Harrison, his motives, his vices and virtues. She could have added more colour to his character without compromising the book's welcome brevity. The ending also seems a bit feeble, though Sobel probably had little choice to play it out the way she did. Despite his difficulties, our hero John the clock maker appeared to be heading for fame and fortune, an audience with the King, perhaps a wax effigy at Madame Tussauds. He gets some of this but like so much in history the success of an innovation ultimately involves a collective effort. Only when others mass-produced Harrison's clocks could the captains of the great maritime nations use them. And it was only then that they really played their part in sea-borne trade, colonial endeavour and the rest, no matter how attractive they might look in the Greenwich Observatory. The efforts of others, covered well by Sobel, rob John Harrison of the grand finale. Sobel's "Longitude" is a good read but some readers might feel a little underawed when more seemed on offer.
Rating:
Summary: Journalese
Review: Dava Sobel has done extremely well from this book, as well she might as an experienced journalist with a flair for populist writing. Her chatty style is grating, her analysis is superficial and frankly I am unconvinced by her scholarship and "study visit" to Greenwich. Pseudo-science for the masses.
Rating:
Summary: DAVA SOBEL AND HER TWO ENIGMAS
Review: After reading most of the reviews about this good book from Dava Sobel, I am not going to add to the deserved words of praise of the other reviewers. This book about the Longitude has its merits from the literary point of view and from the historic and scientific points of view. Nevertheless, I find two great mysteries or enigmas in the story written by Ms. Sobel. I presume there must be reasons for them but I am unable to guess or find them. FIRST MYSTERY. In page 37 of the Paperback edition one can read that "Timing the motion of the lamp by his own pulse, Galileo saw that the length of a pendulum determines its rate." This is true, but it is NOT what Galileo found. That the length and rate of the pendulum are related is very old knowledge, maybe from prehistoric times. What Galileo found, by his own pulse, was that the rate of the pendulum does not depend on the amplitude of oscillation. This property is known, since Galileo, as the property of "isochronism" (having equal duration). The period of the pendulum is the same for small or large amplitudes of oscillation. I do not know why Ms. Sobel omitted this. information. SECOND MYSTERY. In page 95 of the Paperback edition one reads about Bradley that "his efforts with a telescope twenty-four feet long provided the first hard evidence that the Earth really did move through space." This is, of course, absolutely true. But this finding by Bradley is better known in the history of science as his discovery of the "aberration of starlight" (1728). In fact, the astronomer Bradley and the word "aberration" are practically synonyms in the history of science. I wonder why Ms. Sobel did not mention this fact. This is the second mystery. Maybe there are other enigmas; anyhow, the book is very good!
Rating:
Summary: Good overview of an unusual subject.
Review: This book traces the story of the quest for a reliable means of determining one's longitude-obviously essential for accurate transoceanic travel. Latitude was established by observing the stars, something seafarers had known since pre-Roman times. The theory of Longitude was known as well: Knowing the time at a given point and comparing it with local noon, and some simple math (the sun "moves" 15 degrees per hour), a distance east or west of any location can be calculated. A more precise determination of the time would give you a better fix on your longitude. This was the real problem-how does one get a more precise time? What John Harrison did was engineer a mechanistic solution to the problem and designed a better clock, while other folks were wasting time on astronomical solutions. Ms Sobel's work does an excellent job describing these other techniques, and Harrison's chronometers as well. His ongoing struggles with his nemesis at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich are also well written. But still...I felt a lack of depth here, maybe that's due to this originally being a magazine article, as other reviewers have commented what of developments in other countries with maritime trade? Also, although my copy had an insert with color photos of each of Harrison's chronometers the book itself has no diagrams-tough to grasp the significance of a "gridiron pendulum" without seeing a picture. I think an appendix that could go into depth about such things as "maintaining power" (ability of a clock to keep running while being wound-novelty in the 18th century) and other details of horology would make the book even more accessible to casual readers. Overall a good read on an important but overlooked subject in the "Age of Exploration". Final Note: In my copy, the author states that the chronometers may be seen in the National Maritime Museum. As of November 1999, they were in the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Rating: 
Summary: Lucky us that it was Dava Sobel
Review: It's wonderful when just the right writer takes on a subject of particular interest to me. Dava Sobel, in her lean, crisp, yet penetrating style, captures the history of the development of that critical instrument -- the chronograph for mariners. How many ships, how many lives were saved by this one achievement? Dava told the story just right, in my opinion. Not surprisingly, John Harrison learned that there was political finagling to contend with back then, as there is now. So his prize for solving the problem of keeping accurate time on ships wasn't as forthcoming as it should have been. Fans of O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series will love "Longitude", and rejoice that the invention came along before Aubrey and Maturin's voyages. Those two encountered enough slings and arrows without having to wonder where in the world they were. That old saw that claims "You can't tell a book . . ." is off the mark in this case. The designer of the jacket of Sobel's treasure was smack dab in harmony with the book.
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Summary: The Long road to Longitude
Review: Nothing is better in a popular science story than converging and competing disciplines, and the discovery of longitude epitomizes this competition. It was a multi-century search for an expensive and deadly problem - how to calculate your position east and west at sea - one that pitted mechanics against astronomers, educated elitists against self taught workmen. It was a problem that was considered impossible to solve, and yet it had to be for there to be true global exploration. And the prize for the discovery was threefold: a kings ransom, the praise of the establishment, and the proof of the superiority of your method. Sobel's treatment of the story was fair. She illuminated colorful personalities and conflicts, but for the bulk of the book she described the bureaucratic mire and spouted biographical information. The tale could have been told with more drama. How had the principal players interacted. Furthermore, more peripheral information about the longitude problem would have been interesting. For instance, how did other nations (i.e., Japan, China, Portugal, etc) approach the problem? This is definitely a great read for all interested in the innovative process. If you want a good _story_ about longitude, try "The Island of the Day Before" by Umberto Eco. If you want the real scope, this is the one for you.
Rating:
Summary: The longitude and English study guide.
Review: I read this book in reading assignment at English as a second language class. First of all, we didn't know about auther and of course who John Harrison is. However, longitude problems and their history are very interesting topic for foreign students. And I recomend to read for study Engilsh and Greenwich meridian histry. You'll also get knowledge about Western marine histroy.
Rating:
Summary: I was inpressed about Harrison and knowledge of the author.
Review: I just finished reading this book and that book was really good as a story. In 17th century, there was no good method to find longitude when people sailed so lots of people lost their life and the property of them. The story about John Harrison's efforts made me so impressed and respect him. Also, the author of longitude has great knowledge about it and she made it to a really good story, which not only professional people can read but I 'm not a native English speaker so it was really hard to read because it contains lots of pfofessional and difficultvocabularies. Someday,after my English skill improved to enough to read it, I want to reat it again because it gave me really good knowledge and interest.
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