Rating: 
Summary: The birth of the chronograph
Review: Latitude and longitude are fundamentally different. Rotation of Earth endows our planet with an axial symmetry. So while finding latitude is relatively easy, determining longitude is not. Save the moon and the planets, the night sky looks exactly the same if you travel along the parallel 15 degrees to the east east, or simply wait for an hour. Without an accurate clock and a sextant, this made navigation on the open sea a black magic. For any expanding overseas empire, this was serious matter. Serious enough that the British Parliament offered a high prize -- several millions dollars in today's money -- in 1714 for solving the longitude problem.By 1730, the world still did not have any practical and reliable method of finding longitude. By 1760, it had two. One of them, backed by Britain's the most influential astronomers of the time, included a quadrant (later sextant) and tabulated ephemerides. With them, a skilled navigator could have calculated its position within hours, in clear weather. The other method required only an accurate clock. If the clock can tell you your home time, you only need to determine your local noon -- when the shadows are the shortest -- and the difference between the two tells you your longitude. This method was backed by a lone clockmaker, John Harrison. This book is about him, about his life-long pursuit of a reliable, seaworthy chronometer, and his battle with the scientific establishment. Eighteen-century mechanics, while far from trivial, is intuitive enough to make explaination of the internal workings of a shiny brass clockwork a wonderful topic. With some diagrams and explanations of Harrison's ingenious inventions, this book could easy become any engineer's dream. Perhaps the illustrated edition (ISBN 0802713440) comes closer to this ideal. Ms. Sobel, although allegedly a science writer, was more interested in the socio-political aspects of the story, and hardly touches the engineering part. Deliberately neglecting the engineering audience, the book is far from being a historical scholarly text either. She writes in an easy-to-read, journalese style. Fair enough, some thirty references are listed in the end for anyone willing to pursue the topic further. So while you cannot claim you've learned a lot of science or history, Longitude still makes a great beach reading. And of course, reading this book is a must for anyone planning to visit the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, where the clocks are exhibited.
Rating:
Summary: A well-told, uncluttered tale
Review: I greatly enjoyed this book, and felt that the level of technical detail was appropriate. The author's intention, stated explicitly in the afterword, wasn't to describe the workings of Harrison's chronometers or to elucidate the various rival methods of determining longitude. Rather, she wanted to tell the story of Harrison and the raw deal he got at the hands of the Longitude Commission, and I think she did a superb job of that. (And, as someone who's worked in a number of government-sponsored R&D environments over the years, I found the story sadly familiar: the conflict between the astronomical method, which was politically favored and whose supporters controlled the Commission, vs. Harrison's down-to-earth and practical approach, could be duplicated in many R&D arenas today!)
If you're intrigued and want to know more specifics about the construction of Harrison's chronometers, the author provides an ample list of source material. But for the rest of us, I think her choice of details was ample enough to illustrate Harrison's ingenuity (e.g., the self-oiling and bi-metallic clock parts) without overwhelming the reader with minutiae. The readers who grumbled that this book was "too lightweight," or "an example of the dumbing-down of America," I think missed the point: it isn't intended to be a scientific exposition but a tale of human nature. When a researcher's emotional attachment to a theory gets in the way of scientific objectivity, the results can be highly destructive. This is a lesson that many technical people need to learn, this book teaches it well, and I'm a little scared (though not surprised) by how many of them simply didn't get it.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Lean Account of Quest to Calculate Longitude at Sea.
Review: For centuries, the inability to calculate longitude at sea doomed many a sailing vessel and its cargo. Unable to calculate their exact position, ships would run aground or miss their destinations entirely, leaving their crews to suffer and sometimes parish from starvation, scurvy, or infectious disease. By the 18th century, the lives and monies lost as a result of this inability to navigate properly had become such an obstacle to commerce and political ambitions that, in 1714, England's Parliament offered an extraordinary sum of money to anyone who could devise a method of reliably calculating longitude at sea. Dava Sobel's "Longitude" is the story of the approximately 60-year race to solve the longitude problem and its hero, a clockmaker from Yorkshire named John Harrison, who invented what we now call the chronometer. Ms. Sobel has written a short, very readable account of the technologies, personalities, and politics surrounding the quest for a solution to the longitude problem and its accompanying prize. The book owes its economy -only 180 pages- to the fact that the author doesn't attempt to place the longitude problem in a greater historical context or to say more than is necessary about the individuals who play a part in the story. "Longitude" concentrates on one story, which is the book's strength as well as a limitation. If the story intrigues you, there is more to be learned elsewhere about navigation at sea, the technology of the chronometer, John Harrison, and all the other grand personalities that inhabit this tale of discovery and the politics of science. But "Longitude" is a brisk, enjoyable account of the invention that solved a centuries-old problem and propelled Great Britain to global dominance.
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Summary: Simple guy solves enormous problem
Review: If you can't get Newton and Galileo to solve your scientific problems, who do you turn to? Well the English government turned to everyone, hoping that some budding scientist could figure out the problem of calculating Longitude at sea. They even offered a huge reward. Why was it important? Without precise longitude, there was no way to steer a ship with any precision. Thus English ships were being wrecked and precious cargo wasn't making its scheduled delivery. The scientists worked and worked on the problem. Many men including Edmund Halley thought that by mapping the stars, one could use the night sky as a map at sea. Although he knew little about science, a simple clockmaker named John Harrison thought that well-built clock with a dual face would solve the problem. You get to guess which person was right. Longitude is both a vibrant story of the pains of solving an important problem, and a biography of the man who solved it. I don't tend to read the subject of science all that much, because I find it dry, but not so with this book. Author Dava Sobel lends an understanding of the human element in science. That Harrison has to fight snobbery first and later jealousy demonstrates how ego and self-importance can get in the way of the most important problems facing human beings. Not only will you learn how average people can solve enormous tasks, but you'll nod as the familiar self-promoters try to take the credit.
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Summary: An Interesting and Concise History
Review: Dava Sobel's book is an interesting and concise recounting of the history of English efforts to develop the technology of fixing a ship's longitude at sea. Sobel's effort was focused, as she effectively covers all the relevant material and keeps the text interesting and understandable, resulting in an interesting and informative work that can be read in one or two sittings. I thoroughly enjoyed the history, and found her descriptions of technical matters accurate and comprehensible. I, for one, did not miss the rigorous coverage that a purely academic history typically provides. Moreover, I afford kudos to the author for the omission of footnotes/endnotes, which I did not miss at all. The history that was spelled in the book was colorful and evocative, but did not generate the sense that the historical figures depicted were "characters" in a fictional work, a fact for which the author merits applause. I highly recommend this work. The reader will not be bored, nor will most readers be damaged by the popular style or concise coverage of the topic. In this work, the reader will come to know about John Harrison, carpenter and amateur clockmaker. Sobel explains the import of the lack of ability for ships' captains to accurately fix their longitude, and weaves an entirely adequate historical context for this focused issue of interest. The major historical figures, Harrison and his colleagues and competition, are brought to life for the reader. Most importantly, I believe the reader will appreciate the ability to complete the entire text within the course of a few hours and still feel like the history has been thoroughly presented. Meanwhile, I'll be looking for the next work by this author. Enjoy.
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Summary: Longitude by Sobel
Review: The work describes historical attempts to determine the exact
position of objects at sea. The author describes the solar and
lunar eclipse. Werner used the moon as a location finder.
Galileo designed a navigation helmut-the celatone.
Harrison constructed a table of the sun rising and setting.
Nevil mas Kelyne published a Nautical Almanac which depicted
lunar/solar-stellar distances. This book is perfect for
science buffs and students seeking to gather information on
a scientific class project at almost any level.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, Try the Illusatrated Version
Review: I enjoyed this book, please see my review for the illustrated version.
Rating:
Summary: A modern classic
Review: Truly a modern classic. This work not only serves as a model for so many histories that came after, but it also lays the groundwork for understanding navigational principles that will serve the reader well when reading other works of seamanship, exploration and science.
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Summary: A TESTAMENT TO A HUMBLE MAN'S INGENUITY & PERSEVERANCE
Review: Dava Sobel ably tells the story of John Harrison's lifelong quest to develop an instrument capable of determining longitude in all climes. In response to a tragic sinking which took place close to the English coast early in the 18th century, owing to the inability of a ship's captain to accurately determine longitude, Parliament offered a monetary prize to anyone who could develop and perfect an instrument to accurately determine longitude. Sobel, in her book, describes the efforts of the scientific community in Britain to develop this instrument and contrasts it with officialdom's long disdain for Harrison's efforts to produce an accurate, all-weather instrument for gauging longitude. This book is a compelling human drama of how a humble person's ingenuity and unwavering dedication to producing the chronometer, ensured a safe and secure way for ships to navigate the seas. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Heros past and present
Review: This book took me to a time quite different than ours today, with different problems and different heros. This story will inspire readers to find their niche in today's world. By finding today's problems which they are inclined and gifted to solve, they will become our next heros. I highly recommend Longitude. It has inspired me.
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