The Illustrated Longitude
The Illustrated Longitude is a book written by Dava Sobel;William J.H. Andrewes. The book was published in 2003 and is listed under the Science category. For readers who want to quickly understand what this title offers, this page gives a clear overview of the book, including its description, author information, page count, ratings, and ISBN details.
The full title of the book is The Illustrated Longitude. When available, the subtitle is The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, which gives extra context about the theme, focus, or main idea behind the book. According to the available description, The Illustrated 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 throughout the ages of exploration, 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 to the longitude problem. To encourage a solution, governments established prizes for anyone whose method or device proved successful. The largest reward of £20,000 – truly a king’s ransom – was offered by Britain’s Parliament in 1714. The scientific establishment – from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton – had been certain that a celestial answer would be found and invested untold effort in this pursuit. By contrast, John Harrison imagined and 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. The Illustrated Longitude brings a new and important dimension to Dava Sobel’s celebrated story. It contains the entire original narrative of Longitude, redesigned to accompany 183 images chosen by William Andrewes – from portraints of every important figure in the story to maps and diagrams, scientifc instruments, and John Harrison’s remarkable sea clocks themselves. Andrewes’s elegant captions and sidebars on scientific and historical events tell their own story of longitude.
This book has 224 pages, making it useful for readers who want to know the approximate length before starting. It has an average rating of 4.09, based on 166 ratings, which can help readers understand how other people have responded to it.
For cataloging and reference purposes, the ISBN-13 is 9780802775931, while the ISBN-10 is 0802775934. These numbers are helpful when searching for the exact edition of the book online, in libraries, or in bookstores.
The book cover image can be viewed here: http://books.google.com/books/content?id=eKofHQAACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&source=gbs_api.
Overall, The Illustrated Longitude by Dava Sobel;William J.H. Andrewes is a title that may interest readers looking for books in Science. Whether you are researching new books, comparing editions, or building a reading list, this page gives you the most important details in one place.
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