Quotessence
Home / Authors / Dava Sobel
Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel Quotes

Science writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllLongitudeLongitude ActAstronomersBritish ParliamentInventionLatitudeScienceAbleAccurateAstronomer

Famous Dava Sobel Quotes

“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 the three-dimensional globe. He wrested the world’s whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch.”

LongitudeLongitude ActJohn HarrisonMarine ChronometerMarine Clock
Book:Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Create image

“Having established itself securely on shipboard, the chronometer was soon taken for granted, like any other essential thing, and the whole question of its contentious history, along with the name of its original inventor, dropped from the consciousness of the seamen who used it every day.”

InventionLongitudeLongitude ActChronometerJeremy Thacker
Book:Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Create 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.”

British ParliamentLongitudeLongitude Act
Book:Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Create image

“Halley had become England’s second astronomer royal in 1720, after John Flamsteed’s death. The puritanical Flamsteed had reason to roll over in his grave at this development, since in life he had denounced Halley for drinking brandy and swearing “like a sea-captain.” And of course Flamsteed never forgave Halley, or his accomplice Newton, for pilfering the star catalogs and publishing them against his will. Well liked by most, kind to his inferiors, Halley ran the observatory with a sense of humor. He added immeasurably to the luster of the place with his observations of the moon and his discovery of the proper motion of the stars—even if it’s true what they say about the night he and Peter the Great cavorted like a couple of schoolboys and took turns pushing each other through hedges in a wheelbarrow.”

Isaac NewtonPeter The GreatEdmond HalleyJohn Flamsteed
Book:Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Create image

“Earlier maps had underestimated the distances to other continents and exaggerated the outlines of individual nations. Now global dimensions could be set, with authority, by the celestial spheres. Indeed, King Louis XIV of France, confronted with a revised map of his domain based on accurate longitude measurements, reportedly complained that he was losing more territory to his astronomers than to his enemies.”

IndividualNationsEnemyKingsAuthorityLosingDistanceFranceDimensionsMapsTerritorySpheresAccurateContinentsDomainMeasurementCelestialOutlinesExaggeratedUnderestimatedAstronomers
Author:Dava Sobel
Create image