There is an excellent book about "the Longitude problem" that details John Harrison and the invention of high precision chronometers: http://www.amazon.com/Long

There is an excellent book about "the Longitude problem" that details John Harrison and the invention of high precision chronometers: http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-Problem/dp/080271529X http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-P... Great short book for any engineer.