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Article: A high degree of success for the story of longitude
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 24, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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An extraordinary account of a carpenter who taught himself
horology to solve one of science's most urgent problems - how to
calculate longitude - has become an unexpected publishing success.
Dava Sobel, 49, a former science reporter for the New York
Times, has been astonished by sales of her book. It has been in the
top 10 of the American bestseller list for more than 20 weeks and
is now top of the British list.
Simply entitled Longitude, it is the story of a Yorkshire
carpenter, John Harrison, who invented a clock that allowed sailors
to chart their geographical position on the high seas. In doing so,
he solved a centuries- old conundrum which had caused the death of
thousands of travellers ...