This book is about solving the great problem of how to find Longitude. At first, I hated the book since it was more of a history lesson than an actual book but later on, it got into conflicts and disasters, which really made it interesting. I enjoyed the races between two scientists on who could finish an effective method the fastest or before they died, I was in awe of Harrison's devotion to his life's work, and I really love the main race on which version of finding longitude will be accepted first, the lunar method or the time method.
When Parliament first set up a prize for whoever could figure out an effective method of finding longitude every jumped in on it and many people claimed the figured it out just so they could get some of the prize and then they never showed their face to prove it. To get this prize for developing a time method for figuring out longitude was a big race. This race was between many scientists but two stand out from the rest, Arnold and Earnshaw. Arnold was a genius in science and marketing because he had a system for making his chronometer, he had many skilled clockmakers make the bulk of the chronometer then he did the detailed and complicated parts himself as to make sure they were built properly. He was also smart as not to marry until his business was going ahead full steam and when he did marry, he married someone who was well-off and could help him in his business, home life, and help devote themselves to their only son, John. Earnshaw on the other hand married a poor wife, had many children, and tried to do most of the work on his chronometers himself. Earnshaw did not seem like a contender, especially against someone like Arnold, but Earnshaw thought on a level that Arnold did not so Earnshaw was first to realize that replacing pivots with a spring eliminated the need to oil that part of the works. In the end, both Arnold and Earnshaw got a piece of the prize and the only difference between their chronometers was the maker and a price difference of around fifteen English pounds.