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Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude

It was one of humankind’s most epic quests – a technical problem so complex that it challenged the best minds of its time, a problem so important that the nation that solved it would rule the economy of the world. The problem was navigation by sea—how to know where you were when you sailed beyond the sight of land – establishing your longitude. While the gentry of the 18th Century looked to the stars for the answer, an English …