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Longitude - Dava Sobel


 Longitude - Dava Sobel Printed Book
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Longitude - Dava Sobel

 
Description: ISBN 0007214227 / Author: Dava Sobel / Genre: History

Newest Review: ... a clock that was both accurate to an unheard-of degree, & unaffected by the rolling of the ocean or extremes of ... more

 ... temperature. The result was a masterpice that revolutionised navigation & mapmaking. Longitude has become very famous & it's a great story that's as easy to read as a novel. It's surprisingly short, though, at under two hundred pages. Harrison was clearly an astonishing person: originally trained as a carpenter, his early clocks used specially-selected, minutely-carved wood for their workings, for strength & natural lubrication. His succession of sea-clocks were even more ingenious & yet there's a frustrati...more

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Longitude: The Play - Based on the Book"Longitude" by Dava Sobel
Pages: 99, Paperback, Amber Lane Press Ltd
Last Update 30.11.2009 05:47
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Longitude [DVD] [2000]
Gracefully adapted from Dava Sobel's extraordinary bestseller, th ...
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£ 49.89


Longitude [DVD] [2000] [US Import]
Gracefully adapted from Dava Sobel's extraordinary bestseller, th ...
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The Illustrated Longitude: IllustratedEdition
When Dava Sobel's Longitude was published to universal acclaim i ...
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Read Reviews for Longitude - Dava Sobel

helican
Premium Review Longitude - Dava Sobel: And Navigation Make a Pleasure (344 words)
by - written on 24/07/09 (Very useful, 49 readings)
Rating:

Tapping into the fabulously rich world of eighteenth century science & discovery, Longitude tells the tale of John Harrison, the self-taught clockmaker who devoted his life to building the perfect timepiece. One of the great puzzles of his day was how sailors could calculate longitude, which required them to know the local time plus the time in a certain location & to work out the difference between them. Harrison set himself to build a clock that was both accurate to an unheard-of degree, & unaffected by the rolling of the ocean or extremes of temperature. The result was a masterpice that revolutionised navigation & ...  Read the complete review

MALU
Crowned Review Wooden Watches (912 words)
by - written on 07/01/07 (Very useful, 351 readings)
Rating:

Do you know where John Harrison is buried? I do, because I’ve been to his grave, twice even, the last two times I was in London with students I booked a tour through Hampstead with London Walks and the guide showed us Harrison’s grave in the churchyard of St John’s Church. I see you frowning and scratching your heads: John Harrison? To be honest, when I saw the name on the tombstone, I didn’t know who that was, either, and when the guide mentioned that that man had solved the longitude problem, I wasn’t much wiser. The guide didn’t dwell on the subject and only after reading the book Longitude by Dana Sobel, I understood that I had paid homage to a genius. The ...  Read the complete review

vikil
Premium Review Longitude - Dava Sobel: An obstinate astronomer and the stubborn watchmaker (581 words)
by - written on 21/07/00 (Very useful, 470 readings)
Rating:

First lets set things straight. Chronometer, the wondrous instrument which changed seafaring for ever is basically a pocket watch. It might have been a very accurate pocket watch for it’s time and undoubtedly the first John Harrison’s pocket chronometer was a work of genius but it is still only a clock. I am not trying to underestimate here the significance of its contribution to the history of navigation but it seems that esteem for the figure of Harrison as well as for the book about him got a bit out of hand. Dava Sovel is a good narrator. Her book starts with a clearly written and concise background to the longitude problem. This was the basic ...  Read the complete review

 

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Longitude - Dava Sobel