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Title: One Man's Battle Against the Scientific Establishment
Review: The story of how one man, John Harrison, battled for decades to prove to the scientific community the merits of a timekeeper-based approach for finding longitude. His approach was condemned largely for its simplicity by scientists who favored an astronomical approach that required precise measurements of heavenly bodies, on a rolling ship, and complex calculations. While this sounds dry, the book is filled with amusing anecdotes of the quack methods proposed for finding longitude, and the descriptions of Harrison's struggles and dedication to his invention are inspiring. You'll learn a good deal about clocks, excuse me, chronometers, and their history from Galileo and Christian Huygens to John Harrison's marine timekeeper, designed to withstand the temperature changes and humidity levels of a rolling, ocean-going ship.
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