4 ms·

An excellent history of the problem of longitude is detailed in the book 'Longitude' by Dava Sobel. There are great stories about the clocks leading up to the c

• comatose_kid 13y ago
  Yes, this was a really well written book that told the story of how Harrison, a carpenter, accomplished what even Newton thought to be impossible.
• melling 13y ago
  I highly recommend the book. His persistence is inspiring. So inspiring to me that I borrowed "H4" when I decided to create a "company" to build my mobile apps: http://www.h4labs.com http://www.h4labs.com I've been plugging away (part-time) for three years. Sometimes it feels like a long time, but when you consider that Harrison spent decades on a much harder and worthwhile problem... Anyway, if anyone wants to help me with my "sea trials", I'd appreciate it. Here's an overview of my next release: http://www.h4labs.com/design1.html http://www.h4labs.com/design1.html
• NelsonMinar 13y ago
  It's an excellent book. Even better is the Illustrated version, which adds a lot of beautiful photographs. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4805.The_Illustrated_Longitude http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4805.The_Illustrated_Long... Longitude particularly made me appreciate the craftsmanship that these inventors applied. Could you imagine spending 20 years building a single machine, not sure if it was going to work, then sending it off on a boat for 2 years and only when it comes back do you know if it worked? Makes me a bit more patient to wait 2 minutes for the test suite to run...
  • zachrose 13y ago
    That sounds kind of like the skycrane landing on Mars.