LONGITUDE: The True Story of a Lone...

LONGITUDE: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel (Penguin: $10.95, 184 pp., illustrated). During the Age of Exploration, thousands of lives were lost in accidents caused by errors in reckoning longitude. In 1714, the British Parliament offered the staggering sum of 10,000 pounds to the originator of a reliable system of figuring longitude at sea.

In this delightful study, Sobel explains how John Harrison, a clockmaker with little formal training, solved a puzzle that stumped Galileo and Newton. With equal clarity, she explains both the technical hurdles that had to be overcome and the battles Harrison fought with the scientific establishment to obtain the reward he deserved.