g. following moons of Jupiter or the movement of the Moon over the star sky to find out the precise time. The central conflict of Longitude is not the need to calculate longitude but the antagonistic relationship between the Harrisons and the Reverend Maskelyne. She is unfairly hard on the Halley/Maskylene method of calculating longitude, for example, which worked too, and had the big advantage of only requiring equipment that already exist onboard ships (a good compass, a sextant and a trained navigator). Sobel attended Antioch College and the City College of New York before receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1969.

Parece mentira que algo para lo que actualmente son necesarios dos simples relojes de pulsera, trajese de cabeza a medio mundo.It is utterly fascinating to read about the extend of human inginuity, but also entertaing to see some of the hair-brained alternative schemes that were considered to addresz this problem. LONGITUDE presents the story of John Harrison, a self-taught Yorkshire clockmaker, who struggles alone to raise the art of clock making to unheard of levels of accuracy.

Era tan importante para los países encontrar una solución al problema de la longitud, que les hacía perder barcos, mercancías, hombres y dinero, que decidieron poner una recompensa a aquél que diese una solución lo más exacta posible.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is a 1995 best-selling book by Dava Sobel about John Harrison, an 18th-century clockmaker who created the first clock ( chronometer) sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at sea—an important development in navigation. This is a page turner that makes what could be a mire of mechanical and mathematical detail simple, easy to follow and enjoy by anyone, whether they are confirmed landlubbers or have a previous interest in the sea. A well-timed bomb, exploding 6,440 feet in the air (the limit of available technology), could be seen from a distance of 100 miles.

Thanks to the politics of London, the Board of Longitude was populated by representatives from the astronomy camp, and they were none too keen on Harrison’s mechanical marvel. As I explained above, the general solution to calculating longitude was long in evidence, but no one could think of a way to effect it.It was Ptolemy in ‘ Geographia’, written in the 2nd century, who contributed the concept of a co-ordinate system based on the imaginary lines of latitude and longitude, for accurately plotting any spot on the surface of earth. At the heart of Dava Sobel's fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and horology stands the figure of John Harrison, self-taught Yorkshire clockmaker, and his forty-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper. When navigators simultaneously knew the local time aboard the ship and the time at another location which had a known longitude, then they could could calculate their ship's longitude.

As the book pertains to characters and events long since dead and passed, a publication date of more than 20 years ago has little bearing on the book’s readability and engagement. But to feel so is to reckon without her remarkable ability to tell a story with clarity and perfect pacing. Maritime navigation is a technical issue, but this tale reeked of jealousy, competitiveness, and political intrigue. But accurately measuring their current longitude was an entirely different case, as the longitudinal lines loop from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again in great circles, which converge at the ends of the earth. This concise and engaging chronicle of an innovative engineering deed covers a lot of details on the history, science and politics, which led to this invention and is a recommended read for anyone who is interested in maritime history and science.Por lo tanto es fundamental saber en todo momento el tiempo real tanto en el barco como en el lugar desde el que se ha partido o el de destino. The book summarizes the situation and the journey of 18th century clockmaker John Harrison to building timepieces that could keep sufficiently accurate time (despite the jostling, temperature and humidity changes, etc. Moreover, it turns out that despite the oceans are vast, it was easy to ambush ships because most followed narrow routes to avoid confusion. He showed his plans to Edmund Halley of comet fame, a board member, who sent him to a prominent clockmaker and fellow Royal Society member who encouraged Harrison to build his clock. She does this even with the considerable handicap of lacking much evidence about Harrison’s early life.