Longitude
In Our Time13 Mai 2021

Longitude

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the search for Longitude while at sea. Following efforts by other maritime nations, the British Government passed the Longitude Act in 1714 to reward anyone who devised reliable means for ships to determine their longitude at sea. Mariners could already calculate how far they were north or south, the Latitude, using the Pole Star, but voyaging across the Atlantic to the Caribbean was much less predictable as navigators could not be sure how far east or west they were, a particular problem when heading for islands. It took fifty years of individual genius and collaboration in Britain and across Europe, among astronomers, clock makers, mathematicians and sailors, for the problem to be resolved.

With

Rebekah Higgitt Principal Curator of Science at National Museums Scotland

Jim Bennett Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum

And

Simon Schaffer Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1093)

The Garamantes

The Garamantes

Misha Glenny and guests discuss an ancient civilisation who lived over 2000 years ago in the southwest of modern-day Libya. During prehistoric times, the Sahara Desert was greener and even had large l...

11 Jun 57min

Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the great writers on Central Europe after the first world war and on the dying of the old orders with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. As a German s...

4 Jun 55min

Cybernetics

Cybernetics

Misha Glenny and guests discuss cybernetics – the field of study which gave us the prefix ‘cyber’ and helped lay the foundations for the information age. After the Second World War, cybernetics emerge...

28 Mai 52min

Indian Indentured Labour

Indian Indentured Labour

Misha Glenny and guests discuss how, after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, sugar planters recruited workers from India to replace or compete with their formerly enslaved labour...

21 Mai 51min

M.C. Escher

M.C. Escher

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), the graphic artist and printmaker best known for his impossible buildings, paradoxical perspectives, and repeating geom...

14 Mai 55min

Handel's Messiah

Handel's Messiah

Misha Glenny and his guests discuss the most famous oratorio of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and his librettist Charles Jennens (1700-1773). For his libretto, Jennens drew from Old and New Test...

7 Mai 54min

The Spanish-American War 1898

The Spanish-American War 1898

Misha Glenny and guests discuss a turning point in world affairs in 1898 that left Spain greatly reduced as an imperial power and the US the owner of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, with a sign...

30 Apr 55min

Silicon

Silicon

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the physics, biology and chemistry of the element silicon which is at the heart of some of the most useful and beautiful objects on the planet. While it is still being...

23 Apr 52min

Populært innen Historie

med-egne-oyne
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
henrettelsespodden
historier-som-endret-norge
aftenposten-historie
sektledere
historier-som-endret-verden
rss-benadet
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
rss-gamle-greier
vare-historier
rss-frontkjemperne
historiepodden
rss-katastrofe
rss-historier-fra-gudbrandsdalen
taakeprat
rss-bisarr-historie
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
liberal-halvtime
historiepodden-ww2