Someone has finally written the story of Harrison and his chronometer into a nice, readable story. Longitude is a good little book outlining the problem sailors faced in determining their longitude and the mechanical genius behind its resolution. Sobel's telling takes the reader through the nature of the problem, which is probably unfamiliar to most today, and illuminates the innovations achieved by John Harrison, a relatively unschooled but brilliant man gifted in mechanics and engineering. The problems he faced from his competitors and from the Longitude Board, essentially judges for the awarding of the prize to whoever found a workable solution, are very interesting. The tale is full of conflict-of-interest problems, engineering hurdles, and egos. I was fascinated with the longitude problem before reading this book and am now more fascinated in its history. This is a good book that is well written and will wet the appetite for more.