Longitude
by: Dava Sobel
In our modern world we sort of take for granted that we can get where ever we want to go, and do it precisely. If you board a plane in New York that is bound for LAX you expect to land exactly at LAX. If the plane instead got you to John Wayne Airport and seemed proud that they got that close you would be furious. Even that level of accuracy would have been a miracle for a ship’s captain during much of human history. Entire fleets were lost without ever engaging an enemy because of failures in dead reckoning. When Britain was growing into power they required the ability to put men and materials where they need to be and when they needed to be there. The Holy Grail in this quest was pinning down Longitude. Turns out this was easier said than done.
The cast of characters in this book is fascinating. The central focus is a simple man who eventually beat out some of the greatest minds in human history in a race for immense wealth and prestige that spanned decades. John Harrison was a self-taught clock maker who defied convention through sheer will power and ingenuity. While colossal intellects like Hooke, Hailey and Newton were pinning their hopes on the stars Harrison insisted there was a simple (it really wasn't simple in my opinion) mechanical solution. His self-confidence and ability to work on a problem until he had it nailed down eventually lead to intuitive leaps and innovations that changed the way humans interacted with the world.
This book is definitely worth reading for anyone who is a history buff or a science nerd. There are a lot of interesting subplots and tangents that take place in the book that might make you look at some well-known historical figures a bit differently. I bet you will also be much less inclined to take your GPS for granted next time you go on a trip as well…
Some things to think about:
Some things to think about:
1. What would it be like to live in a world we couldn't navigate with certainty?
2. How essential is the ability to sail and fly accurately over great distances to globalization?
3. John Harrison was a self taught clock maker. That would be like a modern high school drop out building a working room temperature super conductor in his garage. Are there any paralelles in recent times?
4. Follow up to 3 - I had some one suggest that the social media millionaires are a similar story. I disagree because I think what they did was more reading the times right and using developed technology in a semi-novel way. To me that is fundamentally different than developing an underlying technology to solve an existing problem. Am I wrong on that?
1. We do this all the time, just not necessarily in the same way. If you're in a foreign place without an iPhone, you just have to figure it out! And there's a deeper side to that question: what about all those crazy kids in your school? They're constantly navigating foreign situations.
ReplyDelete2. Adventure is possible. Globalization requires precision in location and timing. Read The Commanding Heights or watch the PBS series. Fascinating. In his day and age, you could get dropped pretty much anywhere and globalize because there was more opportunity. Today you need more specific goals.
3. Clockmakers were trained through apprenticeships, not formal schooling. If he's smart enough to captain a ship, I bet he could reverse engineer a clock and figure it out.
4. I think I agree on this one. Social media isn't engineered the same way a clock or a car or a dishwasher is. It's going to change a lot more and have to adapt quickly to competition since so many people can make social media sites now. It's more intuitive than mechanical, so I'm not sure it can be mastered the same way.
1. Ah, I see what you did there. Way to use navigate metaphorically instead of literally. :P
Delete2. Not sure what how that first sentence relates. Interesting points after that. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "specific goals"?
3. Harrison was never apprenticed. He just sort of worked it out. He was never a captain. In fact, it sounds like he wasn't very fond of ships. He was forced to go out to sea a couple of times but that's about it as far as I know.
4. Thanks for agreeing with me. :)
Hmmm... I think I read the part about fleets getting lost and assumed he was on a ship. I haven't read the book. So I don't know why I'm responding. But anyway...
DeleteI'm saying without specific goals, you're just on an adventure; it might be fun and you might get something out of it, but you have to know what you're doing to globalize. You can't just point the plane in one direction and go for it. You need to know why you're branching out to a new location, who your target market is, and where to find them so you can pick the right location. Then you need to know about the customs, the culture, how to reach people, and all that good stuff. Once you have all that figured out, then you need a good GPS, but until you have goals how do you know where you want to go?
Gotcha. Well, I appreciate you responding with your thoughts. You might like the book, but really it is more one I would recommend for Will and Patrick. If you want to get your science on you should try Clockwork Universe. I'll post a review on that next.
DeleteI absolutely understand everything you have mentioned. In fact, I browsed through your various other articles and I think you happen to be completely right. Best wishes with this particular blog.
ReplyDeleteThank You
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