Longitude Movie

[Richard Romeo]

LONDON (Reuters) - Film star Jeremy Irons is to play the man who solved the 
problem of measuring longitude in a six million pound ($9.7 million) drama 
to mark the millennium, Channel 4 said Monday.

Longitude -- the distance of any place on the world's surface east or west 
of Greenwich -- was virtually impossible to measure
until 18-century English clockmaker John Harrison rose to the challenge and 
invented the world's first almost frictionless clock.

English actor Irons -- famous for films such as the ``French Lieutenant's 
Woman'' and a recent remake of ``Lolita'' -- stars in the
TV version of the book ``Longitude'' by Dava Sobel.

It tells how Harrison responded after the British government grew desperate 
to stop sailors' deaths caused by poor navigation.

At the time the government offered a 20,000 pounds reward to anyone who 
could solve the longitude problem. One less successful
competitor believed longitude could be measured by listening to the yelping 
of injured dogs.

($1-.6194 Pound)


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