The illustrated longitude / Dava Sobel and William J.H. Andrewes.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Walker, [1998]Copyright date: ©1998Description: 216 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cmContent type:
  • still image
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0802713440
  • 9780802713445
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Imaginary lines -- Sea before time -- Adrift in a clockwork universe -- Time in a bottle -- Powder of sympathy -- Prize -- Cogmaker's journal -- Grasshopper goes to sea -- Hands on heaven's clock -- Diamond timekeeper -- Trial by fire and water -- Tale of two portraits -- Second voyage of Captain James Cook -- Mass production of genius -- In the meridian courtyard.
Summary: This fully illustrated edition of the international best-seller Longitude recounts in words and images the epic quest to solve the greatest scientific problem of the eighteenth and three prior centuries: determining how a captain could pinpoint his ship's location at sea. All too often, voyages ended in disaster when crew and cargo were either lost at sea or destroyed upon the rocks of an unexpected landfall. Thousands of lives and the fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. Governments established prizes for anyone whose method or device proved successful. The scientific establishment, certain that a celestial answer would be found, invested untold effort in this pursuit. By contrast, John Harrison built the unimaginable: a clock that told perfect time at sea, known today as the chronometer. Harrison's trials and tribulations during his forty-year quest to win the prize are the culmination of this remarkable story.--From publisher description.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room QB225 .S63 1998 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000038717
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room QB225 .S63 1998 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000005716

Originally published: Longitude. New York : Walker, 1995.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Imaginary lines -- Sea before time -- Adrift in a clockwork universe -- Time in a bottle -- Powder of sympathy -- Prize -- Cogmaker's journal -- Grasshopper goes to sea -- Hands on heaven's clock -- Diamond timekeeper -- Trial by fire and water -- Tale of two portraits -- Second voyage of Captain James Cook -- Mass production of genius -- In the meridian courtyard.

This fully illustrated edition of the international best-seller Longitude recounts in words and images the epic quest to solve the greatest scientific problem of the eighteenth and three prior centuries: determining how a captain could pinpoint his ship's location at sea. All too often, voyages ended in disaster when crew and cargo were either lost at sea or destroyed upon the rocks of an unexpected landfall. Thousands of lives and the fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. Governments established prizes for anyone whose method or device proved successful. The scientific establishment, certain that a celestial answer would be found, invested untold effort in this pursuit. By contrast, John Harrison built the unimaginable: a clock that told perfect time at sea, known today as the chronometer. Harrison's trials and tribulations during his forty-year quest to win the prize are the culmination of this remarkable story.--From publisher description.

31560000038717 292

Illustrated version of Dava Sobels bestselling biography of John Harrison

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