Longitude (1 of 21)
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In the early 18th century, John Harrison struggles to build a practical marine chronometer for determining longitude (east/west position) at sea. In the 20th century, a retired naval officer attempts to restore Harrison's time machines to their original condition.
December 29th, 2011 - 10:31
@ilanpi Another funny error: It is stated that the Lunar Method doesn’t work when it’s cloudy. Well, neither does the watch method, because you have to use the Sun or stars to compute local time, which is then compared to the watch’s time to find longitude.
December 29th, 2011 - 10:55
@cleekmaker00 I agree. This movie makes many factual errors, but they are absolutely correct in spirit, which is the most important thing. They did get one basic point wrong, which is normal because Dava Sobel also got it wrong in her book: The lunar method was just as important in finding longitude, as you needed another method to check that your watch was running correctly. Otherwise, how would Captain Cook have sent reports from the other side of the world about the watch’s accuracy?
December 29th, 2011 - 11:53
Many THANKS!
December 29th, 2011 - 12:28
What was Harrison working on with the choir asking Sir Charles to help him publish a pamphlet?
December 29th, 2011 - 12:41
Goodness!
Is that the time?
Fortunately I live west of it.
I can sleep in a little longer.
December 29th, 2011 - 12:59
Wristwatches were right on the cusp of popularity at the end of the Great War, so I don’t think it odd that Cmdr. Gould would have been wearing one, especially in the RN.
But anyway… what an awesome movie! Skillfully acted and shot, this is one of those that would be welcome in anyone’s video library. At the same time, it’s also a movie that makes you think.
December 29th, 2011 - 13:31
I doubt that Rupert Gould would have had a wristwatch as shown in the movie, a pocket watch would have been much more likely. Apart from the fact that men’s wristwatches only started being worn during WWI in battle, pocket watches were much more accurate at the time, obviously something important to him.
December 29th, 2011 - 14:26
@pidzse Youtube has only recently allowed the upload of videos longer than ten minutes……perhaps this is the reason?
December 29th, 2011 - 14:39
why only 10 minutes, cut the video when 15 minutes would have been too good?
December 29th, 2011 - 14:44
I love Jeremy Irons’ reaction when the doctor says, “I think I’ll stick to human beings.” He doesn’t say a word but his face says, “funny, I was just thinking how much I would prefer to stick with clocks.”
December 29th, 2011 - 15:11
It’s a pity embedding is disabled. What is the use?????
December 29th, 2011 - 16:09
@HavazikFerric
im in the UK.
amazon uk/Longitude-DVD-Michael-Gambon/dp/B000L42N96
December 29th, 2011 - 16:43
@wysiwyg2006 I looked for it on DVD and couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe it’s just my location.
December 29th, 2011 - 17:28
@HavazikFerric
its on DVD too, and cheap
December 29th, 2011 - 17:34
Many thanks for posting.
December 29th, 2011 - 17:56
@HavazikFerric That’s nuts I’ve tried so many times for this myself.
December 29th, 2011 - 18:02
Thank you sir, I have been looking for this video for ages!