Longitude : The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

by Sobel, Dava (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780140258790
• ISBN10: 0140258795
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-10-01
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

Sobel presents the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of John Harrison's 40-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.

Author Biography

Dava Sobel is an award-winning former science reporter for The New York Times, and writes frequently about science for numerous magazines including Audubon, Discover, Life, and The New Yorker. Longitude has been an international bestseller and published worldwide in twenty-three languages. Her new book, Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love, which chronicles the lives of the astronomer Galileo Galilei and his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, is also available from Penguin. Sobel lives in East Hampton, New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Imaginary Lines	1	(10)
The Sea Before Time	11	(10)
Adrift in a Clockwork Universe	21	(13)
Time in a Bottle	34	(7)
Powder of Sympathy	41	(10)
The Prize	51	(10)
Cogmaker's Journal	61	(13)
The Grasshopper Goes to Sea	74	(14)
Hands on Heaven's Clock	88	(12)
The Diamond Timekeeper	100	(11)
Trial by Fire and Water	111	(15)
A Tale of Two Portraits	126	(12)
The Second Voyage of Captain James Cook	138	(14)
The Mass Production of Genius	152	(13)
In the Meridian Courtyard	165	(12)
Sources	177	(4)
Index	181