

The crazy ideas which failed to solve the longitude problem [video] - petercooper
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23514521

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bcraven
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 creation of H4, and many more details on the "injustice" that John
Harrison felt.

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude)

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NelsonMinar
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_Long...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4805.The_Illustrated_Longitude)

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...

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zachrose
That sounds kind of like the skycrane landing on Mars.

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Toenex
For me John Harrison remains one of the greatest Britons (despite coming 39th
behind David Beckham and Princess Di in the 2002 poll -
[http://alchemipedia.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/100-greatest-
brit...](http://alchemipedia.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/100-greatest-britons-bbc-
poll-2002.html)). Whilst he wasn't the only inventor working a timepiece
solution his clocks were the most robust and he continued to refine and
improve his product despite certain powers working against him.

The importance of seafaring to Britain cannot be overstated and this man was
responsible for providing a key component of that success in many ways _in
spite_ of the country.

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jdkram
I can recommend, with great bias, the department Simon works at as a great
place to visit full of interesting individuals passionate about their research
area (History and Philosopy of Science at Cambridge University, UK). There's a
wonderful wealth of interest areas ranging from sociology of scientists across
time to male menstruation.

We're in a world built upon layers and layers of science, technology and all
of the societal context that shaped those. It's both humbling and fascinating
to explore the personal narratives of the heroes and villains in our
technological folklore and discover the more oddball stories like this one
about the longitude problem.

The museum:
[http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/](http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/) Public
lectures at the University of Cambridge, which will run much more frequently
come October: [http://talks.cam.ac.uk/](http://talks.cam.ac.uk/)

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casca
For more longitude geeky goodness, the Royal Maritime Museum in London has
lots of material and if you're nearby, you can see the amazing Harrison clock
still in action.

[http://www.rmg.co.uk/harrison](http://www.rmg.co.uk/harrison)

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jere
If you're not familiar with the _Bounty_ or the Pitcairn Islands, this is a
fascinating (and horrific) article on them:
[http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/pitcairn2...](http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/pitcairn200801)

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NelsonMinar
Here's a good summary of what happened to K2, the chronometer on the Bounty.
It turned out to be essential to the mutiny's settlement on Pitcairn.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/bounty-mutiny-
hal...](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/bounty-mutiny-halted-to-
pilfer-timepiece/story-fnb64oi6-1226681298191)

~~~
jere
That sounds _really interesting_! Thanks. Unfortunately, that article appears
to be behind a paywall.

[I did find this article:
[http://www.winthrop.dk/chrono.html](http://www.winthrop.dk/chrono.html) I
can't believe how interesting this stuff is and how I never managed to learn
about it until recently.]

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lmm
Suggest a [video] tag.

