Longitude

Longitude

Dava Sobel;

Fourth Estate; England

1857025717 (paperback)

1996

9 out of 10

Subtitled "The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time", Longitude delivers on its promise as a fascinating short story detailing the history of the evolution of a dependable means for accurately determining longitude at sea for navigation purposes.

Written as a popular account and not as a scholarly study, this small sized (110x178mm) handbook unravels and reveals the dramatic human story of one solitary man's brilliant mechanical ingenuity applied to solve the longitude problem, and exposes the darker side of human nature in another as a consequence. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The 175 pages of this book provide an interesting and enjoyable experience in the history of longitude, and the key players involved. Sobel guides the reader through a logical history of events requiring no prior knowledge of the subject. Skillfully interwoven with excellent plain English explanations of technical matters, the story ranges over a vast expanse of scientific matter including astronomy, cartography, chronology, gravity, horology, navigation, optics, mechanics, leadership and seamanship.

Primarily set in the period of 18th century England and driven by a kings ransom prize of 20,000 (English pounds) as the incentive, scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, and many other people (some famous like Hooke, Newton, and Halley) applied their minds to the longitude problem.

Indeed, some of the characters in this story had their hand in "fathoming the behaviour of light, the theory of gravity, the feasibility of steam engines, the cause of earthquakes, and the action of springs" as well as determining the speed of light, the distance from the earth to the sun and the moon, the size of the earth, and the mapping of the heavens.

The story commences with several accounts of ships and fleets of vessels lost at sea with great loss of life and cargo, culminating in a petition by the merchants and seamen of London presented to British parliament demanding a solution to the longitude problem.

Central to the story is the British Longitude Act of 1714 which "established a blue ribbon panel of judges that became known as the 'Board of Longitude'.

This board, which consisted of scientists, naval officers, and government officials, exercised sole discretion over the distribution of the prize money."

"The board, according to the Longitude Act, could give incentive awards to help impoverished inventors bring promising ideas to fruition. This power of purse strings made the Board of Longitude perhaps the world's first official research-and-development agency."

"In time, the board was literally besieged by any number of conniving and well-meaning persons who had heard word of the prize and wanted to win it. Some of these hopeful contenders were so galvanized by greed that they never stopped to consider the conditions of the contest. Thus the board received ideas for improving ship's rudders, for purifying drinking water at sea, and for perfecting special sails to be used in storms."

"Over the course of its long history, the board received all too many blueprints for perpetual motion machines and proposals that purported to square the circle or make sense of the value of pi."

Two serious contenders eventually emerged, that of timekeeping by clock, and that of timekeeping by the skies. Each had their own limitations and drawbacks, until the timepieces invented and perfected by the main character of the book proved their worth. It is claimed that his work "facilitated England's mastery over the oceans, and thereby led to the creation of the British Empire."

Subsequent timepieces participated in the most famous ocean annals of the time including Captain Cook's voyages of discovery, and Captain Bligh's Bounty. When the crew mutinied in 1789, they made off the ship's timepieces and kept them on Pitcairn Island for another twenty years.

On a personal note, although this book doesn't specifically mention it, a famous Ramsden did receive a 300 payment from the Longitude board for his contributions to navigation aids.
See Ramsden.info Jesse Ramsden.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in time and place, history, horology, chronology, or a good weekend read. Well researched, well constructed, and well presented. Altogether, well done.

I'll keep this copy on my favourites book shelf.