Finding Longitude: How ships, clocks and stars helped solve the longitude problem
Автор: Rebekah Higgitt
Год издания:
Recommended for viewing on colour device.Official publication of the National Maritime Museum's “Ships, Clocks and Stars” exhibition.300 years ago, amidst growing frustration from the naval community and pressure from the increasing importance of international trade, the British government passed the 1714 Longitude Act. It was an attempt to solve one of the most pressing problems of the age: how to determine a ship’s longitude (east-west position) at sea.With life-changing rewards on offer, the challenge captured the imaginations and talents of astronomers, skilled craftsmen, politicians, seamen and satirists. This beautifully illustrated book is a detailed account of these stories, and how the longitude problem was solved.Highlights of the book include:• Foreword by the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees.• Specially commissioned photographs from the National Maritime Museum’s archive.• A new description of the collaborations and conflicts in a tale of technical creativity, scientific innovation and hard commercialism.From the same publisher as Dava Sobel’s Longitude, Finding Longitude tells a new story of one of the great achievements of the Georgian age, and how it changed our understanding of the world.
The Clocks
Автор: Agatha Christie
Год издания:
A typist uncovers a man’s body from behind the sofa…As instructed, stenographer Sheila Webb let herself into the house at 19 Wilbraham Crescent. It was then that she made a grisly discovery: the body of a dead man sprawled across the living room floor.What intrigued Poirot about the case was the time factor. Although in a state of shock, Sheila clearly remembered having heard a cuckoo clock strike three o’clock. Yet, the four other clocks in the living room all showed the time as 4.13. Even more strangely, only one of these clocks belonged to the owner of the house…
