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| Named Person: | John Harrison; John (Uhrmacher) Harrison |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Biography |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Dava Sobel |
| ISBN: | 0802713122 9780802713124 |
| OCLC Number: | 32469232 |
| Description: | viii, 184 p. ; 20 cm. |
| Contents: | Imaginary lines -- Sea before time -- Adrift in a clockwork universe -- Time in a bottle -- Powder of sympathy -- Prize -- Cogmaker's journal -- Grasshopper goes to sea -- Hands on Heaven's clock -- Diamond timekeeper -- Trial by fire and water -- Tale of two portraits -- Second voyage of Captain James Cook -- Mass production of genius -- In the Meridian Courtyard. |
| Responsibility: | Dava Sobel. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
Reviews
WorldCat User Reviews (1)
Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved ...
Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time by Dava Sobel. London: Fourth Estate.
Review by Bill Palmer
This was one of the most enjoyable books I had read in a long while. It is a short book of 175 pages in a good sized print....
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Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time by Dava Sobel. London: Fourth Estate.
Review by Bill Palmer
This was one of the most enjoyable books I had read in a long while. It is a short book of 175 pages in a good sized print. It gives an historically accurate account of the life of John Harrison and his quest to build a clock that would keep perfect time.
John Harrison was born on 24 March 1693, the eldest of five children and died on 24 March 1776. His father seems to have been a carpenter so he must have gained some insight into working in wood when very young and he was determined enough to teach himself to read and write, reading Saunderson's Natural Philosophy whilst he was a teenager. He made his own notes on the book and set himself the task of building a pendulum clock before he was twenty.
The book gives a brief historical account of the problems of measuring time and the significance of this in navigation. The British Admiralty offered a huge cash prize for the first person to determine longitude to a specified degree of accuracy. The rest of the book concerns Harrison's attempts to win this prize against all the odds and the incompetence and double-dealing of Admiralty officials. The book really is good reading.
Originally published in STANT Journal
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All user tags (3)
- history of science (by 1 person)
- inventors (by 1 person)
- scientists (by 1 person)
- 1 items are tagged withhistory of science
- 1 items are tagged withinventors
- 1 items are tagged withscientists
Similar Items
Related Subjects:(16)
- Longitude -- Measurement -- History.
- Chronometers -- History.
- Harrison, John, -- 1693-1776.
- Clock and watch makers -- Great Britain -- Biography.
- Historia da ciencia
- Harrison, John (Uhrmacher)
- Geographische Länge
- Geschichte.
- Ortsbestimmung
- Uhr
- Geschichte 1714-1776.
- Biographie
- Messung
- Schiffschronometer
- Geschichte 1714-1841.
- Großbritannien
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