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Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
By Jane Jacobs (narrator) and Dava Sobel
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Jump down to see edition details for: Hardcover | Paperback | CD/Spoken Word | Cassette/Spoken Word
Bibliographic Detail
Publisher St Martins Pr
Publication date March 15, 1996
Binding Cassette/Spoken Word
Book category Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13 9781559273978
ISBN-10 1559273976
Dimensions 0.75 by 4.75 by 7.50 in.
Weight 0.35 lbs.
Availability§ Out of Print
Original list price $17.95
Other format details audio
§As reported by publisher
Summaries and Reviews
Summary
Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes.
Amazon.com description: Product Description:
An exciting scientific adventure from the days of wooden ships and iron men, Longitude is full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd. It is also a captivating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking.

For centuries, the determination of longitude was thought to be an impossibility. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land.

The quest for a solution had occupied scientists for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, England's Parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom -- £20,000, or about $12,000,000 in today's currency -- to anyone whose method or device proved successful. Countless quacks weighed in with preposterous suggestions.

Then one man -- an unschooled woodworker named John Harrison -- dared to imagine a mechanical solution, a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.


Editions
Hardcover
Book cover for 9780753150368 Book cover for 9780802713124 Book cover for 9780802714626
 
With Neil Armstrong (other contributor) | from Walker & Co (October 1, 2005)
9780802714626 | details & prices | 184 pages | 7.55 × 5.00 × 0.75 in. | 0.60 lbs | List price $22.00
About: Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes.
Large print edition from Isis Large Print Books (January 1, 1998)
9780753150368 | details & prices | 6.50 × 9.50 × 0.50 in. | 0.80 lbs | List price $24.95
About: Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of John Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.
from Walker & Co (October 1, 1995)
9780802713124 | details & prices | 4.50 × 7.75 × 0.75 in. | 0.70 lbs | List price $19.00
About: Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes
Paperback
Book cover for 9780140258790
 
Reprint edition from Penguin USA (October 1, 1996)
9780140258790 | details & prices | 4.50 × 7.75 × 0.50 in. | 0.30 lbs | List price $13.00
About: Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes
CD/Spoken Word
Book cover for 9780739323786
 
With Kate Reading (other contributor) | Unabridged edition from Random House (October 4, 2005)
9780739323786 | details & prices | 5.50 × 5.00 × 1.00 in. | 0.45 lbs | List price $25.95
About: Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes.
Cassette/Spoken Word
Book cover for 9781559273978
 
The price comparison is for this edition
With Jane Jacobs (other contributor) | from St Martins Pr (March 15, 1996)
9781559273978 | details & prices | 4.75 × 7.50 × 0.75 in. | 0.35 lbs | List price $17.95
About: Describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument able to keep accurate time for navigational purposes.

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