Book Review

When you next go to London, take the boat trip up the Thames to the Greenwich Observatory, a pleasant ride even in January. Have your picture taken at Longitude Zero, visit the museum, and stare in awe at the four timepieces created in the 1700’s by John Harrison to win a prize of £20,000 for creating a maritime clock that would keep accurate time for measuring a ship’s east-west position, while sailing stormy oceans through winter and summer. Longitude by Dava Sobel is the superb story of the race for that princely sum, a race that stretched the envelopes of geography, astronomy, physics and technology of the 1700’s, and involved the machinations of some of the famous characters of the century. Most of all it is the story of Harrison, an unknown, self-taught genius who, over a period of more than 40 years, patiently, single-mindedly, innovated the techniques that culminated in H-4, a large pocket-size watch, that won the prize, and continues to amaze.

Sobel’s book, published in 1995, was an instant success. The critical acclaim, “a gem of a book”, “fascinating”, “nearly perfect prose”, “enthralling”, “as much a tale of intrigue as it is of science”, is still appropriate. The edition written with William Andrews, with its beautiful, useful illustrations and annotations is especially welcome, giving presence, understanding, and appreciation to the people, the challenges of the problem, and wonders of clockmaking.

~ Lee Grodzins, Ph.D., Physicist, Professor Emeritus, MIT

Sobel writes, "For lack of a practical method of determining longitude, every great captain in the Age of Exploration became lost at sea despite the best available charts and compasses." Instruments to determine latitude, the distance north or south of the equator, had been known since antiquity, but it was not until the eighteenth century that the longitude problem was solved. In competition for a £20,000 prize offered by the English Parliament in 1714, John Harrison, a Yorkshire clock-maker and carpenter, invented a timepiece of sufficient durability and accuracy to solve the longitude problem. The Royal Astronomer and academic mathematicians and astronomers were expecting that they would be rewarded for their laborious efforts in cataloging the heavens and predicting their movements. Without the intervention of the King, they would have prevented a mere clock maker from receiving the prize for a piece of machinery.

Harrison's struggle with the technical and political problems of longitude makes for a compelling story told with clarity and balance by Sobel, a former New York Times science writer. She brings to life the era and the personalities engaged in this saga of science and invention and explains the technical details in easily understandable terms. The illustrated edition provides wonderful pictures of old maps, machinery and instruments that increase the reader's appreciation of Harrison's skill.

~ Janet Fullerton, Information Services Librarian, CML