Longitude (Dava Sobel)

This popular science account of huge changes in the 18th century has no pretensions to be a scholarly work. Short and simple, with reference material consigned to the appendix, the style is simple and the book refreshingly short. There is no attempt to draw the story out into the wider history of the age, just a clear focus on the challenge and the conflicts between the people involved. The challenge of solving the longitude problem taxed the greatest brains of the later middle ages, as greater commerce created more shipping and more losses from miscalculations of position. The book describes the creation of almost-perfect time-keeping devices by John Harrison, and his attempts to prove these were the solution to the problem. Opposed to him were some of the great astronomers, who proposed the lunar distance solution, and stood in judgement of Harrison’s efforts. Although Harrison himself was perhaps his own worst critic, refusing to even submit his first two creations test until he had improved them … taking another 30 years.

The book captures the detail of clock-making without becoming boring, balancing the details with the desires of Harrison to deliver perfection and the tension between the competitors for the prize. Striking a fine balance between science and personality, this is certainly one of the better popular history of science books.