By Dava Sobel
An absolutely illustrated variation of the overseas best-seller Longitude. The Illustrated Longitude recounts in phrases and pictures the epic quest to resolve the best medical challenge of the eighteenth and 3 past centuries: making a choice on how a captain may well pinpoint his ship's situation at sea. All too frequently in the course of the a long time of exploration, voyages led to catastrophe whilst team and load have been both misplaced at sea or destroyed upon the rocks of an unforeseen landfall. hundreds of thousands of lives and the fortunes of countries held on a solution to the longitude challenge. To motivate an answer, governments tested prizes for someone whose technique or gadget proved profitable. the most important present of ?20,000-- actually a king's ransom-- was once provided by way of Britain's Parliament in 1714. The medical establishment-- from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton-- were convinced celestial resolution will be chanced on and invested untold attempt during this pursuit. against this, John Harrison imagined and equipped the incredible: a clock that advised excellent time at sea, recognized this present day because the chronometer. Harrison's trials and tribulations in the course of his forty-year quest to win the prize are the fruits of this impressive tale. The Illustrated Longitude brings a brand new and significant measurement to Dava Sobel's celebrated tale. It comprises the total unique narrative of Longitude, redesigned to accompany 183 photographs selected by means of William Andrewes-- from portraints of each very important determine within the tale to maps and diagrams, scientifc tools, and John Harrison's amazing sea clocks themselves. Andrewes's stylish captions and sidebars on clinical and ancient occasions inform their very own tale of longitude, paralleling and illuminating Sobel's memorable story.
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Extra info for The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Example text
Did the island he to the east or to the west of the Centurum's present position? That was anybody s guess. Anson guessed west, and so headed in that direction. Four more desperate days at sea, however, stripped him of the courage of his conviction, and he turned the ship around. 23 The Illustrated Longitude The Sea Before Time Forty-eight hours after the Centurion began beating east along the thirty-fifth parallel, land was sighted! But it showed itself to be the impermeable, Spanish-ruled, mountain-walled coast of Chile.
A few years of such observations were enough to destroy anyone's eyesight. Yet the observations had to be made. And after all those early navigators lost at least half their vision finding the latitude, -who would wince at wounding a few wretched dogs in the 62 quest for longitude? Powder of Sympathy SirKenelm Digby (1605-65) u'as an Engluh diplomat, a devout Catholic, and a staunch royalut who escaped to France during the Engluh Cii'tl War. Despite his claims for the "Powder of Sympathy," which no doubt originated from his interest in astrology and alchemy, he became one of the original members of the Royal Society and u< said to have been the first to explain the necessity of oxygen to the life of plants.
But which way should he go? Did the island he to the east or to the west of the Centurum's present position? That was anybody s guess. Anson guessed west, and so headed in that direction. Four more desperate days at sea, however, stripped him of the courage of his conviction, and he turned the ship around. 23 The Illustrated Longitude The Sea Before Time Forty-eight hours after the Centurion began beating east along the thirty-fifth parallel, land was sighted! But it showed itself to be the impermeable, Spanish-ruled, mountain-walled coast of Chile.
