Book Review: Longitude by Dava Sobel

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Timeis the story of how the "longitude problem" was solved. The problem was that while latitude was easily kept track of on sea journeys, longitude had no simple tracking system and many voyages ended up getting lost or shipwrecked without this vital information. The story discusses many different proposed solutions of the day, but particularly John Harrison, who was a humble clock maker.

I thought this was a fascinating book about this unsolved problem that many famous and less-famous scientists of the day attempted to solve. A really interesting look at the science and politics of the eighteenth century. Plus, this book is accessible in language (you don't have to be a scientist), short in length, and also manages to throw humor in.

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Overall rating: ****