Finding Longitude: How ships, clocks and stars helped solve the longitude problem

by Richard Dunn, Rebekah Higgitt

Recommended for viewing on colour device.
Official publication of the National Maritime Museum's “Ships, Clocks and Stars” exhibition.

300 years ago, amidst growing frustration from the naval community and pressure from the increasing importance of international trade, the British government passed the 1714 Longitude Act. It was an attempt to solve one of the most pressing problems of the age: how to determine a ship’s longitude (east-west position) at sea.

With life-changing rewards on offer, the challenge captured the imaginations and talents of astronomers, skilled craftsmen, politicians, seamen and satirists. This beautifully illustrated book is a detailed account of these stories, and how the longitude problem was solved.

Highlights of the book include:

• Foreword by the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees.

• Specially commissioned photographs from the National Maritime Museum’s archive.

• A new description of the collaborations and conflicts in a tale of technical creativity, scientific innovation and hard commercialism.

From the same publisher as Dava Sobel’s Longitude, Finding Longitude tells a new story of one of the great achievements of the Georgian age, and how it changed our understanding of the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

468 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Richard Dunn (1966-) is the Senior Curator and Head of Science and Technology at Royal Museums Greenwich. Richard is Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, London, which involves managing a team of curators, as well leading on content and delivery of galleries, exhibitions and research and on the development of the collections. He has worked in the museum sector since 1992 in a range of curatorial and interpretation roles at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ragged School Museum, the British Museum, English Heritage and Royal Museums Greenwich.

Reviews

[Christiffer Vogts]

I read this over the course of a weekend for a project in school. I found it interesting and fun however slightly dry. The book as a whole was great and gave me a better scale of how events unfolded.