The scientific community was skeptical of Harrison's work from "summary" of Longitude by Dava Sobel
Harrison's claim that he could build a clock that would keep time at sea encountered immediate resistance from the scientific establishment. The idea that a humble clockmaker could solve the age-old problem of determining longitude seemed preposterous to many learned men. The scientific community was deeply skeptical of Harrison's work, dismissing it as the fanciful dream of an amateur. The prevailing wisdom at the time held that the solution to the longitude problem lay in the heavens, not in the workshop of a clockmaker. Astronomers and mathematicians had long believed that the key to determining longitude lay in observing the positions of the stars and planets. They thought that by carefully measuring the angles between celestial bodies, sailors could calculate their exact position on the globe. Harrison's assertion that a mechanical timepiece could achieve the same result flew in the face of centuries of received wisdom. The scientific community was...
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