Length, Dava Sobel
With just looking to the sky, navigators can know where the north and south are, and where the east and west are. Moreover, looking at the sky with a simple tool, the navigators can know if they are far north or south, that is, the latitude. But it is not possible to do the same with the east and the west, the sky does not provide information to appreciate the length of a position.
And there has been no other method until recently. Navigation acquired great strength from the beginning of the American colonization, in the fifteenth century. and XVI. Especially from the centuries. The authorities put a lot of money and resources to look for a method to determine length and offered numerous awards to reward this scientific achievement. For many it was the greatest challenge of science for three hundred years.
Solution XVIII. It arrived in the 19th century. One could calculate the length instead of looking to the sky, carrying in the boat two watches: one that gives the hour of the position of the boat and the other that gives the hour of a known length.
In addition to knowing the method, they had to overcome the challenge of making clocks that work properly on the boat. This book by American writer Dava Sobel tells the story of John Harrison, the watchmaker who allowed the world to measure length.
Longitude is known for Dava Sobel. It explains the historical origin of the problem, the efforts made in the search for the solution, the surprising solutions proposed and finally the very history of the Harrison watches.
The key was to make a specific pocket watch, not because it entered the pocket, but because it did not use the pendulum. This is because due to the cults produced by the sea, the pendulum does not carry a regular frequency and does not serve to determine the seconds.
In total, Harrison made five watches (all in London at the Greenwich Observatory). For this work he received the prize of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, although Sobel tells what cost them their decision.
It is a story about navigation and watchmaking, in short, the story of a great scientific challenge, narrated in detail and in a very attractive way.
Its author, Dava Sobel, has been a science journalist for many years in the New York Times and has written articles for numerous scientific journals.
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