• Dava Sobel
  • 184 pages
  • First published October 19, 1995

“He wrested the world’s whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch.”

That’s the final sentence to this wonderful book about the ‘discovery of longitude’.

Central to this book is the challenge of establishing longitude at sea during the 17/18/19 century. The challenge became so important to European seafarers that the British parliament setup the Longitude Act and the Board of Longitude – who were tasked to find the solution to the problem of longitude.

The Board of Longitude then setup a reward for the inventor who managed to solve the problem, but they also distributed funds to impoverished inventors that needed the means. This made them one of the first R&D agencies in the world.

The largest part of the book is devoted to John Harrison, a man of humble origins that worked his way up from being a carpenter to promising and talented clockmaker. Without any formal education in clockmaking and with his engineering/mechanical background perspective from his carpentry background, he managed to bring various inventions to the field of clockmaking. E.g. the caged-roller-bearing and bi-metallic strips, both inventions are still being used to this day.

It’s a fascinating story. It deals about the impressive feats that Harrison accomplished against all odds. He was a lone-inventor, the type that we only know from myths really. He had to battle strength of the power of various other contestants. His arch-nemesis, Maskelyne, the fifth Royal Astronomer, was deadset on proving that lunar maps would be the best way to establish longitude at sea. The book portrays his actions as almost sabotaging Harrisions inventions and tests, in favour of his own inventions. It makes for an interesting story. 

I appreciate that Sobel managed to stay true to the facts, she’s very clear what is true, what is legend, and what is assumed. Based on this you can make up your own mind. The story is rich of detail and facts, but not dry. On the contrary, it’s probably as engaging as you can get a non-fiction book before you enter the realms of historical fiction. I also appreciate that Sobel kept the book slim in size and didn’t add trivial details to fatten it up.

Interesting book, well written, great story. I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in history, technology, geography, & nautical history.