Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful little book!
Review: As a history buff this book is informative, interesting, and a great tale of what transpired during the 1700's as the world grapled with the problem of longitude. In today's world it is hard to imagine that at one time people would board a ship not knowing exactly where their final destination would be. Thank goodness John Harrison solved this perplexing problem. A good read
Rating: 
Summary: More Readers Digest than Britannica.
Review: An enjoyable read, but marred by the absence of even a single
amplifying illustration on a topic which simply cries out for
graphical support. Innovations in components like escapements
are described as major, but in the absence of any explanation
of 'how' or 'why' such statements take on the status of a
hollow claim. The reader is left to imagine just how the
described improvements in timekeeping were actually achieved.
Sobel writes well, but in the absence of even the occasional
illustrated sidebar or detailed expansion, her book leaves
the reader unsatisfied that he or she has actually learned
anything; one comes away from the book seeing it as a light
historical essay rather than a truly illuminating work.
Of course, in all such things balance is of the essence: it
would have been too easy to turn Longitude into a technical
tome that might have scared off vast numbers of readers. But
Longitude goes too far the other way: it skirts around the
outside, lingers briefly on the dials and decoration, but
never attempts to show us the heart of Harrison's incredible
machines.
Rating: 
Summary: A 40 year course in watchmaking without a single diagram!
Review: That sums up the good news and the bad about this book. A fascinating biography of John Harrison and if you're a straight history buff, this is a wonderful read.
But if you're a history of science buff, trying to understand what problems Harrison actually solved, be aware that there are no diagrams, no illustrations, nothing at all that illustrates what Harrison acomplished.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful tale of science, passion and politics.
Review: On occassion a book opens your eyes to one aspect of the world that you would otherwise overlook.
Perhaps it produces in you some new insight into human character or
illuminates a corner of history. It is rare to find a book like Longitude that succeeds on many levels. Here is the tale of John Harrison, a self-taught English clockmaker
who devoted his life to making it possible for sailors to establish their true location.
The prize for this achievement, a fortune in today's currency, was also sought by some of the most brilliant
astronomers of the day. In the end, Harrison's passion triumphed against the maneuverings of this
academic elite. More than a tale of one man's determination, Longitude is a stirring saga of an era of discovery we have all but
forgotten. The advance chronicled here took entire lifetimes to achieve, but is now so mundane
that modern readers will never have considered a world where keeping time was an
art and not the realm of an inexpensive Timex. The force of this change is brought home
through Sobel's description of the first chronometers and other early clocks. They are
objects of power, beauty and to the sailors who traversed the globes with them, true
miracles.
Rating:
Summary: Longitude, an aptly named book.
Review: For it is not the life story of clockmaker John Harrison but that of a lone genius as hero who embarks upon a journey of politics, intrigue, competition, and conflicts of interest. His seemingly endless quest to bring the world perfection within a timepiece solves the longitude problem.
Author Dava Sobel centers on the brilliance of John Harrison to tell a story of scientific progress; man's quest to find longitude. Ms. Sobel takes the reader on a visit to the methods of well known scientists and explains other not so well known solutions to the age old problem. She examines the spectrum of discovery explaining with ease Galileo's moons of Jupiter solution and Flamsteed's lunar distance method. She visits the standard solutions of the time including dead reckoning and explains such harebrained solutions as the wounded dog theory. Ms. Sobel spans the gamut of characters involved including the mentally ill, who draw solutions on asylum walls, and King George, who steps in to quell favoritism and unfair play.
Sobel does well conveying the lone genius' frustration as he competes with teams of well educated scientists presenting well funded propositions and quacks clouding and delaying the longitude committee's review process; all motivated by the $12M in prize money.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling history of the solution to a great problem
Review: This book is an outstandingly well written account of how John Harrison developed the marine chronometer, and how his
invention altered the way we view the world and our place in it.
Small enough to be consumed in a single afternoon, this book
turns what would seem to be a mundane story of a straightforward
device into a thrilling saga of human ingenuity, political intrigue, and history.
History buffs and clock lovers can't afford to pass this one up
Rating:
Summary: What Patrick O'Brian had to say
Review: "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 just such a writer has been found in Dava Sobel." --Patrick O'Brian, author of the Aubrey/Maturin naval serie
Rating:
Summary: Amazing subject, fascinating story
Review: With "Longitude" Dava Sobel has written a very interesting book about the greatest scientific problem of the 18th century. As a result of the 1707-shipwreck story (with a loss of 4 out of the 5 ships), the English Parliament offered in 1714 a 20.000 pounds reward to the person that could provide a practicable and useful way of determining longitude. (If you have forgot, longitude is the "lines" that runs from pole to pole). Not being able to determining longitude was a great problem. Ships spent excessive time trying to find its way back to port, or worse men, ship and cargo were lost at sea. John Harrison (1693-1776) spent his lifetime trying to solve the longitude mystery. Harrison was a son of a countryman, with minimal schooling, and was self-educated in watch making. He made several timepieces, which all qualified for the reward, but the reward was delayed several times by the Longitude committee whom believed that other ways of measuring longitude were the preferred ones. Ultimately after a lot of harassment and trouble, Harrison was given the reward money. Dava Sobel has done a wonderful job in this book, capturing Harrison's fascinating character, his brilliance, preserving and hard working nature. The author has also managed to strike a perfect balance between technical jargon and personal anecdotes, and she does it in such a way permitting the lay readers of the book to admire the elegance of Harrison's discoveries. I believe it is a sign of excellent quality when an author makes learning so interesting. I was hooked from the first page of this book and I read it in 50-page gulps at a time. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Brief but enjoyable
Review: This slim volume tells the story of John Harrison who, although untrained, built four revolutionary clocks that changed how ships navigate at sea. It also tells about the political fight Harrison was forced to fight to win recognition for his work. Written in a easy-to-read, "magazine" tone the tale goes quickly, whole years pass in a couple sentences. I wanted more details and this is where the book disappoints but it may not be the authors fault The book hints that many events weren't recorded and more details just aren't available. One technical note: I think the font used in this tiny, five by eight inch book is a little small and the page numbers, even smaller, aren't readable at a glance. Or maybe I'm getting old.
Rating:
Summary: Bio of the genius who changed the world!
Review: Prior to reading this book, I had seen an A&E movie on John Harrison, the man portrayed in this historical biography. I'm pretty sure that movie was adopted from this book, thus I purchased a copy hoping to delve deeper into the life and times of a genius.
And I loved it. It is tragic that a man who changed the world - and indeed the course of history - to such a degree could so easily be forgotten. Of course, the entire book is a tale of tragedy and heartbreak, though ultimately leading to triumph and victory.
I won't give you an outline of the book, because plenty of other reviewers have done that, but I will very highly recommend it if you have any interest in this topic specifically in inventors, scientific devices, history, and even politics. The only downside to this book, if it can be called a downside, is the number of names, devices, theories, etc., that cover the pages. At times, it's difficult to remember them when the author references them in further chapters.
You will not be sorry you read this book. You will walk away a different person!
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