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

dava sobel william j.h. andrewes

The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward.

Genres historynonfictionsciencebiographyhistoricalgeographyhistory of scienceaudiobooktechnologytravel

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 19,1995

Literary awards

royal society science book prize,

This edition

Format: 224 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 1999 by Fourth Estate Paperbacks
ISBN: 9781841152332
ASIN: 1841152331
Language: English

About the author

dava sobel

Dava Sobel is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include Longitude, about English clockmaker John Harrison; Galileo's Daughter, about Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste; and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars about the Harvard Computers.