Dava Sobel: Longitude : The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Sailing used to be dangerous business. One of the major problems was determining the longitude (figuring out latitude is a lot easier). In 1714, Great Britain declared the Longitude Act, promising massive amounts of money to the inventor of a reliable method to determine longitude.

Sobel's book is about John Harrison, the amateur clocksmith who invented a reliable clock that works at sea. Sounds trivial by the modern standards, but it was very complicated process. With the clock, determining longitude was possible and Harrison was able to try to claim the prize. Which was another complicated process...

Longitude isn't a brilliant book, but reads pretty well nonetheless. If you're interested in the history of seafaring, this book is well worth reading. [ Longitude at Amazon.co.uk ] [ Longitude at LibraryThing ]