Comment by hangonhn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hangonhn | Hacker News Reader

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In case anyone is interested in the history of watchmaking, etc. there's a great book titled Longitude: https://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-...

An accurate marine chronometer was necessary for reliable navigation in order to calculate one's longitude. It turned out to be an incredibly difficult problem that was ultimately solved by John Harrison, who invented the Grasshopper escapement, which the Grasshopper Clock uses.

I think some of us will find Harrison to be very relatable -- more hacker than scientist and never satisfied with his work. He kept coming out with new and improved versions even after he won the Royal Society's prize, IIRC.

In Our Time podcast had a great episode on this really recently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vyn6 Great stuff!

There was a great PBS series made based on that book: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/

(That site is 23 years old!)

I agree with your recommendation of Dava Sobel's book. I recommend it to many of my (science) students, as either (a) a present for a family member who has an interest in science, navigation, history, etc. or (b) a hint that students can give to family members who want to give them a gift.

Many of these students have told me how much they enjoyed the book, and none have told me the reverse.

Undergrads can be a tough audience, so this reception is a very good recommendation for this book. And this is not the only engaging book Sobel has written ... I would recommend any of them.

Beat me to it...

I just finished Longitude and it was a great read! Harrison is an interesting character since he really spent his whole life working on the same problem of keeping time at sea. A whole lot of perseverance.

Lol! Purchasing this book was the very first online purchase I ever made from a very cool new upstart online bookstore called Amazon. <- Funny name I think. Not sure if it will stick around...

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