Longitude

EDITOR'S REVIEW

This bestseller, now in its 10th year, revolves around the figure of John Harrison, a self-taught Yorkshire carpenter and clockmaker who resolved “the longitude problem” and changed the course of horology and navigation history with his invention of the maritime chronometer. Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, narrates John Harrison’s dogged determination to solve this epic scientific quest in the face of adversity - including downright sabotage by royal astronomers - and manages to make complex, abstract ideas related to astronomy and horology crystal clear.