The longitude prize / Joan Dash, pictures by Dusan Petricic.

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A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

By the start of the eighteenth century, many thousands of sailors had perished at sea because their captains had no way of knowing longitude, their east-west location. Latitude, the north-south position, was easy enough, but once out of sight of land not even the most experienced navigator had a sure method of fixing longitude. So the British Parliament offered a substantial monetary prize to whoever could invent a device to determine exact longitude at sea. Many of the world's greatest minds tried - and failed - to come up with a solution. Instead, it was a country clockmaker named John Harrison who would invent a clock that could survive wild seas and be used to calculate longitude accurately. But in an aristocratic society, the road to acceptance was not a smooth one, and even when Harrison produced not one but five elegant, seaworthy timekeepers, each an improvement on the one that preceded it, claiming the prize was another battle. Set in an exciting historical framework - telling of shipwrecks and politics - this is the story of one man's creative vision, his persistence against great odds, and his lifelong fight for recognition of a brilliant invention.

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Publishers Weekly Review

Dash (We Shall Not Be Moved) pens an engrossing tale of the scientific contest for the Longitude Prize, which was offered through a 1714 act of the British Parliament in response to the devastating loss to the British navy of four battleships and hundreds of sailors. Opening with a gripping historical account of a shipwreck, the author sets up a compelling argument for the need to determine a vessel's position on the open sea. Without means for determining longitude, "English ships had been sailing everywhere in the Western world, relying on charts and maps that often had little relation to reality." The Parliament establishes the prize for "any device or invention for determining longitude" with a reward "roughly equal to $12 million today." (Even Isaac Newton competed.) Enter unlikely contender John Harrison, a carpenter and clockmaker, "a loner, plain-spoken, often tactless, with a temper he couldn't always control, and a genius for mechanics." Dash spotlights Harrison's biography as she navigates scientific and cultural history, describing the dynamics between officers and sailors. (She also mentions the role of Captain James Cook, of the Endeavour, in proving the worthiness of Harrison's inventionDCook figures prominently in Hesse's Stowaway, reviewed above). Petricic's caricaturelike drawings and the ragged-edge paper lend the volume a touch of class. Dash begins with more panache than she ends with, but keeps the suspense high throughout. Fans of science, history and invention and anyone who roots for the underdog will enjoy this prize of a story. Ages 10-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 6 Up-This rousing history focuses on the life of the British clockmaker who invented an ingenious way of measuring longitude at sea. This form of measurement was undeveloped in the 18th century, so the British Parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to the first person to come up with an accurate system. John Harrison eventually succeeded overcoming not only the practical problem, but also the prejudices of the scientific community against his humble background and his unusual method. Dash is enthusiastic about her subject, injecting true drama and excitement into the narrative without veering from history. Her explanations of science concepts are clear and easy to follow. Though Harrison's work is key, his life intersects that of many other colorful characters, including Edmond Halley and King George III, all of whom emerge as interesting individuals. Many parts of Harrison's life are unrecorded, but the text always clarifies which areas are speculation or fact. In fact, the piecing together of data by historians becomes a fascinating element of the book, giving readers insight into the challenges and techniques of biographical research. Petricic's small, clever illustrations that open each chapter enhance the text. Dava Sobel's Longitude (Walker, 1995) brought Harrison to the attention of many adults, but The Longitude Prize may need a push to find a young audience. Consider recommending this high-quality title for biography assignments, for inventor reports, and for fans of Jean Latham's Carry on, Mr. Bowditch (Houghton, 1955).-Steven Engelfried, Deschutes County Library, Bend, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 10^-12. Since ancient times, sailors have found their latitude with relative accuracy by measuring the position of the North Star or the Sun above the horizon. Longitude, however, remained a mystery, and countless disoriented ships sank until, in the eighteenth century, an English country clockmaker developed a series of instruments that used time to establish a ship's east-west position. In challenging language dense with technical and historical detail, this biography explains who John Harrison was, how he was able to develop his monumental inventions, and how his instruments ultimately succeeded and failed. Although the book is rewarding in terms of its thorough approach and fascinating subject, most young people will still have trouble getting through it. Technically minded teens (and adults) and readers with an interest in sailing will find it very compelling, however, and students looking for new subjects for reports will discover it to be an excellent resource on a topic seldom addressed in a book for youth. Charming ink drawings by Dusan Petricic illustrate. A glossary, an afterword, a time line, and a bibliography conclude. --Gillian Engberg

Horn Book Review

(Intermediate) The spirit of inventiveness pervades this drama of John Harrison, eighteenth-century maker of clocks and watches, who spent his life building a timepiece accurate enough to determine longitude at sea, an accomplishment that earned him the longitude prize offered by the British in 1714. Although Joan Dash frames Harrison's tale chronologically, she plunges us into the stormy ""most terrible sea"" at the outset with an account of a ship that perished for want of accurate ""reckoning."" Rich anecdotes pepper her account of the difficult, often irascible Harrison, but she never attempts to invent. Where her prodigious research yields no information, she speculates, alerting the reader that ""it's also possible"" or that something ""can only be guessed at."" Dash does not sidestep Harrison's lower-class status as part of the equation whereby the prize eludes him; the Board of Longitude, headed by the gentlemanly Nevil Maskelyne, was not happy dealing with a country inventor. The comic art of Dusan Petric^ic2 serves a dual purpose: it leavens the scientific weightiness and reinforces the imaginative spirit of Harrison as he struggles for forty years to assemble his creation. Particularly noteworthy are the rubrics which open each chapter: the mighty sea cascades through an A; the T becomes a landmass on an ancient map; waves transform into a W on which Harrison's timepiece rests uneasily. This well-handled biography receives a final boost from a solid afterword that brings us forward in time: ""So longitude has lost its mystery, and watches have become so cheap that it hardly pays to have them repaired. Yet John Harrison is not forgotten."" A useful glossary, timetable, bibliography, and index conclude the account. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

John Harrison, an obscure 18th-century carpenter and clockmaker from Yorkshire, solved a problem that had plagued sailors for centuries: how to tell East-West location at sea, thereby avoiding shipwrecks and other costly disasters. To aid sailors, the British government offered the Longitude Prize, an enormous sum of £20,000 (an amount equal to $12 million today), to the inventor of a device that would determine longitude “that shall have been Tried and found Practicable and useful at Sea.” Harrison met the challenge with his Harrison’s Number One-H-1, the first accurate portable clock. Dash ( We Shall Not Be Moved , 1996, etc.) brings the inventor to life with excerpts from his diaries and letters, as she reports on his painstaking experiments, refinements, and extensive sea tests of his 75-pound portable clock. B&w illustraions add a whimsical touch to the telling. For the gruff and meticulous clock-builder, perfecting the clock proved less difficult than claiming the prize offered. Politics and class distinctions in 18th-century England made it extremely difficult for someone not university-educated to get a fair hearing. It took the intervention of His Majesty George III and nearly 50 years of effort before Harrison saw even a portion of his prize money. Dash documents the development of Harrison’s inventions and provides an overview of the politics and science of the period, introducing luminaries such as Sir Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley. Harrison emerges as a stubborn perfectionist who succeeded at long last through great effort. For a less-detailed but perhaps sufficient take on the subject, Trent Duffy’s less-detailed The Clock (p. 630) provides a chapter on Harrison and his chronometric clock. Dash’s title provides an in-depth look at a little known inventor and his life and times and makes good use of primary sources seldom available to students. (afterword, glossary, timeline, bibliography) (Biography. 12-14)