Scan barcode
midwifereading's review against another edition
4.0
I took one star off si.ply because her writing is, at times, a little dry. However, the fascinating story behind the mastery of measuring longitude at sea is dramatic, inspiring, and utterly fascinating! Greenwich and the Maritime Museum are on my bucket list!
heathersiddoway's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
The Wright brothers of clocks
Really interesting just a little dry of a read
The Wright brothers of clocks
Really interesting just a little dry of a read
soniagracelm's review against another edition
4.0
The story was interesting, the history well-researched, and the subject fascinating. Dava Sobel did a good job of explaining celestial navigation and the importance of longitude in a way that conveyed the urgency of the problem. Granted, I already knew how to use a sextant, so I'm not sure it would be quite as understandable to a complete layman, but it seemed fairly transparent to me. My only quibble was that the flow of the story was a little off. It read like it was trying to be a smooth pop-history, but it erred a little heavily on the side of history, rather than pop. On the plus side, this means that the history was really good, but it was a little dry at times. Overall an excellent, quick read. I loved the poem excerpts at the beginning of each chapter, it helped show how widespread knowledge of the search for longitude was.
aligrint's review against another edition
3.0
I think that this book really picked up in the end - for quite a while it seemed to be floating in details and personal conflict without enough personal description to make you care deeply.
The points about how the Longitude Act would transfer ownership of the design could have had a really interesting segue into how governments in general fund and use R&D - stuff like how France bought early photography technology and freely licensed it to its citizens - could have been fascinating.
The points about how the Longitude Act would transfer ownership of the design could have had a really interesting segue into how governments in general fund and use R&D - stuff like how France bought early photography technology and freely licensed it to its citizens - could have been fascinating.
ninethreeo's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. Compelling, interestingly told history of longitude