Rating: 
Summary: Why is John Harrison such a lesser-known scientist?
Review: I never heard of John Harrison, or really thought of how difficlt it must have been to accurately calculate longitude until I read this book. But there is more to the story of longitude than mathematics and engineering. The human story of longitude is brought to life in Sobel's Longitude.Sobel does a very good job of explaining the intracies of the longitude problem, and relates the personal trials and frustrations of Harrison with a penchant for his personal fortitude and courage in the face of frustration and humiliation. I found her writing of the story to be truly inspiring. The book without a doubt is a "personal interest" story, with only a minimum of explaination of how the timepieces actually functioned and the challenges their developement involved. To others, this evidentially detracted from the book - I disagree.
Rating: 
Summary: A History of Timekeeping and its contribution to navigation
Review: This book is a historical story of mans long search for a reliable method of navigation and surveying and how the reliable determination of longitude at sea was achieved. The book tells of an age from the early 18th Century when accurate methods for sailors to determine their longitude at sea was not available and how the search for such knowledge spawned the British Parliament to establish the Board of Longitude and offered a "kings ransom" prize of twenty thousand pounds to whomever could present a "Practicable and Useful" method for determining longitude at sea. After years of work, one man, John Harrison developed a series of clocks that would work aboard a ship at sea and keep time to within the tolerances required to maintain accurate time. This timekeeping was vital in that age and was the only then available method of knowing the time in ones home port which was need to compute positions of longitude when sailing at sea. The book chronicles John Harrison's inventions (H-1 thru H-4) and his lifelong struggles with and against others who were proposing and developing other methods of navigation utilizing lunar and celestial observations. Chronicled are his battles with the Board of Longitude and its commissioners, some of whom became his archrivals in proposing alternative methods. Harrison was ultimately awarded the Copley Medal in recognition of his work by the British Royal Astronomical Society, an award that was later bestowed on persons such as Benjamin Franklin, Captain James Cook and Albert Einstein. The book includes accounts of alternative methods being developed, including a somewhat humorous account of the quack proposal of using the "Powder of Sympathy" which involved the magical curative powers over long distances of a medicinal powder that could cause an injured ship board dog to yelp at prescribed intervals. Such was the desperation of mariners to solve the longitude problem. Ms. Sobel has written a very readable book that is short enough to finish easily in a day. My copy was the hardcover bookstore version that had a nice color card insert with the photographs and descriptions of the John Harrison timepieces, H-1 thru H-4. An illustrated version of the book is available and I would suggests it or other version with pictures, drawings or photographs as the insert card photos helped immensely in my appreciation of the clocks and John Harrison's life work. The book is very enjoyable reading that formed the basis for the acclaimed A&E movie by the same name.
Rating: 
Summary: Most Excellent Book Ever
Review: This book was very intriguing as well as interesting in a sense of both a biography and a story written on longitude. It grabs you by the shirt and pulls you in and keeps you going until the last page. A truly excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good TV Script
Review: The buyer of this title is in for a very large surprise for instead of purchasing the latest and best of historical work they will be buying nothing more than an extended magazine article, and not one of the quality of a "New Yorker" piece. Having read the glowing reviews on this publication I purchased it in the expectation of receiving much more than I did. It is written in a breezy style and based upon the unfortunate use of 20th century hindsight, glaring generalities and current phrasing (slang). Worse yet, as a record of the inventor's achievement, is the complete absence of any of the illustrations prepared by the inventor of the timepiece which would help explain the wonder of the creation. It is not that these are lost to history for there is a consistent reference to them as seen by the author. Similarly an entire "chapter's" conclusions are built on the comparison of two likenesses of the inventor which are used to make the author's case concerning the abuse suffered by that man. They are not set out in the text and one is forced to rely solely on the author's reading of them. Small matters perhaps but indicitive of the lack of care that went into the preparation of this very slim volume. In short this little shallow volume would probably make a good TV script.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, quick, and a little cursory
Review: I picked this book up in an airport and it was a perfect airplane read for a short flight--184 pages, finished up just as we landed in Atlanta. It is an engaging treatment of an offbeat topic. If you're into history, or geography, or science, there's something here for you. Sobel masterfully describes the problems inherent in measuring longitude, but in the end falls short in describing the solution. The book's few pages keep the story moving along briskly without miring the narrative in technical detail, but I found myself peering at the tiny pictures of Harrison's chronometers, wishing I knew a little more about how they worked. A diagram, please? In the end, I felt like the book was a little too short, showing signs of being a magazine piece later converted to a book. Still, a pretty enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Life is too short...
Review: OK. Here is the problem: At sea, north-south position (latitude) can be determined using astronomy (apparent position of stars and planets). But, east-west position can not be calculated that way. However, if one has a good clock and knows the position of the Sun, solution is easy. Now, in the olden days people did not have good (accurate) clocks or watches. So a guy, a British clockmaker, decides to make a best clock of all times and help seamen on their voyages. Plus, there is a reward to be collected, so he tries even harder. Wicked scientific bureaucracy of the times tries not to award it to him and makes his life miserable. Sounds interestinng? I thought not. Nor is the book. Nor is it well written. If you crave good literature, read Borges or Kafka. If you want good science, read Asimov or Gould. This is quasi-literature and pseudo-science. Subtitle also misleading. The guy did not solve any problem, he just made a measuring instrument to enable precise calculations. Problem was solved long before that. Confusing science (ideas) and technology (means). Two stars because it is still better read than Sheldons of this world. Other, mostly raving reviews? (Non-scientists patting themselves on the backs because they were able to understand this 'scientific' book.) Millions watching Dave Letterman show? Sorry, life is too short...
Rating:
Summary: A gripping tale of a great technological innovation
Review: "Longitude" is a bestseller that belongs to the elite of scientific divulgation. The book is written as a popular tale, so its format is quite easy to read ; nevertheless the writing is riveting as pure fiction. Notwithstanding its apparent semplicity, the volume delivers outstandingly the difficult concepts and ideas that were behind the most important scientific problem of 18th century. To author's credit, the research is quite consistent and plenty of authoritative sources are available for anyone interested in deeper knowledge of this scientific challenge. "Longitude" is a brilliant tale of the navigation science main concern: determination of boat position independently from a landmark. Since shipping was the mainstay of economical life of western countries in the centuries of exploration, a safe method of navigation was paramount for running a developing modern economy. Infact today many shipwrecks are direct testimonies of innumarable destructions of lives and goods, simply due to loss of position awareness by the sailors. In the end this stunning volume is an eloquent and effective description of a technological endeavor, scientific achievement, and a revealing tale of the secrets of seapower superiority that were and still are at base of a powerful economy and political strategy.
Rating:
Summary: 5-star topic, unfortunately only a 3-star book
Review: This is not a book I would have chosen for myself, but I'm very glad someone lent it to me. A fairly slim volume, with large type and well-spaced lines, I knocked it over on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Due to the large numbers of people dying at sea simply because they banged into rocks they thought were miles away, in 17th century England a committee was set up to award a prize to the person who could come up with a way for sailors to easily determine their longitude to within half a degree - apparently determining latitude is relatively simple. The prize of 20,000 pounds offered was substantial; probably closer to $1,000,000 in todays' terms, so all sorts of weird and wacky ideas were put forward - in fact, the committee didn't even convene for many years, with most ideas rejected by members acting alone. The committee survived for over 100 years; possible because it was made up of incumbents of esteemed positions, e.g. the Astronomer Royal, the mathematics professors at Oxford, etc. Some pretty illustrious people filled those positions over that time (Halley, of comet fame, for instance) and not all of them were impartial - some wanted to win the prize themselves. Navigation by the stars is a romantic notion, but in those days, mariners could only determine their position with any accuracy on cloudless nights. How could they find their way in the daytime or in storms, especially if they had to rely on observing of the moons of Jupiter to make their calculations? Even if the sea was calm enough to allow them to take the necessary sightings, the calculations took seven or eight hours to resolve (by which time they could be dashed against an unexpected rock). With GPS, modern navigation must be a cakewalk! John Harrison, a man of humble origins, was a self-taught clockmaker who knew that accurate timekeeping was the way to go. A carpenter by trade, his understanding of the properties of various woods enabled him to make highly accurate clocks with self-lubricating frictionless WOODEN parts that still run today! This man was certainly a genius, and the single-minded determination with which he pursued the longitude prize is admirable, especially in the face of the opposition of a committee which seemed to be determined to allow only a celestial method to win the prize. Until Harrison's breakthrough designs, clocks were notoriously inaccurate while the heavens were constant, so a committee heavily weighted by astronomers and mathematicians were hard to convince. Harrison's clocks were put through extraordinary testing, with the committee determined not to award him the prize until the King himself intervened and took part in one of the trials. Even then, as a very old man, he only received part of the prize (along with a special payment) and the rest was still unawarded when the committee disbanded. Three of the four sea-going clocks Harrison invented in the 1700's still run and keep astoundingly accurate time, despite the dreadful treatment they endured. The prize winner, made in a different way and susceptible to wear, is too precious to run but, with the others, is on display in England. I wish I'd known about them when I lived there. The edition I read had no pictures, but it contained a bookmark with pictures of each of the clocks, although you get no idea of their relative size. I found this book very disjointed, and perhaps because she was not intending to write a technical treatise, I found the author sometimes tended to oversimplify, sometimes was downright chatty, and other times was very judgemental. The topic, however, is so fascinating that it is worth reading if you have any interest whatsoever in navigation, horology, or genius.
Rating:
Summary: Measuring Longitude at Sea - A Magnificent Accomplishment
Review: Longitude, written by Dava Sobel, tells the interesting story of John Harrison, a clock-maker that revolutionized the mode of measuring longitude at sea. The novel is extremely informative and a delight to read but lacks in its length.
Rating:
Summary: By dead reckoning, I reckon this book is pretty good
Review: I loved this book -but I freely admit that I may have been more taken in by the subject matter rather than the book itself; nevertheless, I read it at one sitting and found myself sucked in and fascinated. If a book does that, it's worthy of five stars from my perspective. At the same time, I understand other reviewers thoughts about the lack of diagrams, and this book should be considered more from a story telling perspective than a technical analysis. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed it and for the price its a bargain to get you thinking!
| 
