“In the wake of the Longitude Act, the concept of “discovering the longitude” became a synonym for attempting the impossible.” — Dava Sobel Copy Share Image
“The British Parliament, in its famed Longitude Act of 1714, set the highest bounty of all, naming a prize equal to a king’s ransom (several million dollars in today’s currency) for a “Practicable and Useful” means of determining longitude.” — Dava Sobel Copy Share Image
“[John] Harrison [could not] express himself clearly in writing… No matter how brilliantly ideas formed in his mind, or crystallized in his clockworks, his… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“With his marine clocks, John Harrison tested the waters of space-time. He succeeded, against all odds, in using the fourth—temporal—dimension to link points on… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
Earlier maps had underestimated the distances to other continents and exaggerated the outlines of individual nations. Now global dimensions could be set, with authority,… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“He wrested the world's whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch.” — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“Any clock that can track this sideral schedule proves itself as perfect as God's magnificent clockwork. Dava Sobel” — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“the beaches. In literally hundreds of instances, a vessel’s ignorance of her longitude led swiftly to her destruction. Launched on a mix of bravery… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“Time is to clock as mind is to brain. The clock or watch somehow contains the time. And yet time refuses to be bottled… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“And by this experience his knowledge was reduced to diffidence, so that when asked how sounds were created he used to answer tolerantly that… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
And since time sets its own tempo, like a heartbeat or an ebb tide, timepieces don't really keep time. They just keep up with… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“As earnestly as men may seek to understand the workings of the universe, they must remember that God is not hampered by their limited… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“There was only one trial of Galileo, and yet it seems there were a thousand—the suppression of science by religion, the defense of individualism… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“To have done work which is widely recognized, to have gained the sincere esteem of many and the real love of even a few,… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“In the wake of the Longitude Act, the concept of “discovering the longitude” became a synonym for attempting the impossible.” — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“In 1616, a pope and a cardinal inquisitor reprimanded Galileo, warning him to curtail his forays into the supernal realms. The motions of the… — Dava Sobel Copy Share
“The zero-degree parallel of latitude is fixed by the laws of nature, while the zero-degree meridian of longitude shifts like the sands of time.” — Dava Sobel Copy Share
