Latitude

The True Story of the World’s First Scientific Expedition

By: Nicholas Crane

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Latitude is a gloriously exciting tale of adventure and scientific discovery that has never been told before.

Crane, the former president of the Royal Geographic Society, documents the remarkable expedition undertaken by a group of 12 European adventurer-scientists in the mid-18th century. The team spent years in South America, scaling volcanoes and traversing jungles, before they achieved their goal of establishing the exact shape of the Earth by measuring the length of one degree latitude at the equator.

By knowing the shape of the Earth, people can create maps, survive the oceans, navigate the skies, and travel across the globe. Without latitude, maps and navigation would not be accurate, lives would have been lost, and exact locations of cities and rivers would never be known. After 10 grueling years in search of a magic number, the survivors returned to Europe with their historical discovery and fueled the public’s interest in science.

Their endeavors were not limited to this one achievement. Not only did their discovery open up the possibility for safe, accurate navigation across the seas, but they also discovered rubber and quinine.

With a narrative that reads like it was taken from the script of an adventure movie, Nicholas Crane shows how scientific discovery can change the world and our future. Filled with raw excitement and danger, Latitude brings to vivid life the challenges that faced these explorer-scientists.

Years ago, Dava Sobel’s best-selling Longitude was a global publishing phenomenon, yet it told only one half of the story. With Latitude, this cornerstone piece of our shared history is now complete with this account of a trip that changed the course of human civilization.

©2021 Nicholas Crane (P)2021 Penguin Audio

An enjoyable book of scientific discovery

For some, this would be a very boring and dull subject but if you have any feeling for 18th century history and epic discovery, this is a very good book of French scientists, tasked with learning the shape of the earth and discovery of latitude, along with a dozen other elusive findings such as the speed of sound and all deep in the heart of the mountains, forests and deserts of South American in the early 1700s. If you are a dullard and have no heart for adventure, then you will be bored out of the few wits that you already have.

Fun

Great listen fun story will listen to more like this soon worth the time. Love it

Both an adventure sort & a tale of success despite dysfunction

In the 1730s and 40s a French/Spanish team dispatched to what is now Ecuador showed that the Earth bulges at the equator. They did so despite a considerable difficulty in working together, never mind the lesser difficulties of untreatable diseases, difficult terrain, unhelpful weather, and altitude sickness. The nominal leader of the French contingent was a technically able and administratively inept person who repeatedly lost control of the expedition to more experienced team members, who also had difficulty cohering into a team. Sometimes horrifying, such as the casual attitude of the team members towards buying slaves and their . . . measured concern for the welfare of their legally free servants, but also frequently amusing.

confusing

beautifully narrated, the science behind the story is not well explained; particularly the method of triangulation.

Difficult to Follow

I wasn't able to finish due to my lack of interest. It was difficult to follow for me with constantly changing locations and characters with no development.

Great Story

Easy to listen to, quick time travel with mind blowing adventure and savoir faire! Should be a film.