Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day―and had been for centuries. 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. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, 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. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
Chapter 2 - The Sea Before Time
Chapter 3 - Adrift in a Clockwork Universe
Chapter 5 - Powder of Sympathy
Chapter 7 - Cogmaker’s Journal
Chapter 8 - The Grass hopper Goes to Sea
Chapter 9 - Hands on Heaven’s Clock
Chapter 10 - The Diamond Time keeper
Chapter 11 - Trial by Fire and Water
Chapter 12 - A Tale of Two Portraits
Chapter 13 - The Second Voyage of Captain James Cook
Chapter 14 - The Mass Production of Genius
Chapter 15 - In the Meridian Courtyard