Out of the Shadow of a Giant

by John Gribbin

  A graph showing the sunspot group number as measured over the past 400 years. The Maunder Minimum, between 1645 and 1715, when sunspots were scarce and the winters harsh, is clearly visible. © WDC-SILSO

  FOOTNOTES

  Introduction: Out of the Shadows

  fn1 Newton had good reason to be reclusive, given the times he lived in; he was almost certainly homosexual, and definitely a religious heretic.

  Chapter One: From Freshwater to Oxford

  fn1 Quoted by Lisa Jardine.

  fn2 Lely later painted the famous portrait of Oliver Cromwell with ‘warts and all’.

  fn3 Actually £50, which gives you some idea of Aubrey’s reliability.

  fn4 The term ‘scientist’ only became common much later; they regarded themselves as ‘natural philosophers’. But we use the modern term since they were indeed what we now call scientists.

  fn5 Correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. M. Hunter, A. Clericuzo & L. Principe, Pickering & Chatto, London, 2002.

  fn6 The metre was defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole, but is now defined as the distance travelled by light in a specified fraction – about one three-hundred millionth – of a second. The second is defined in terms of a certain number of periods – about 9 billion – of a particular frequency of radiation from the caesium atom. Hooke would surely have been impressed.

  fn7 See Michael Hunter & Simon Schaffer, Robert Hooke: New Studies.

  Chapter Two: The Most Ingenious Book That Ever I Read In My Life

  fn1 We have explained the background to the formation of the Royal Society, and the backgrounds of its founders, in our book The Fellowship (Allen Lane, 2005).

  fn2 These were the terms adhered to by the legal profession, which evolved into the academic terms.

  fn3 All of this highlights a key feature of the English scientific revolution. Developments in scientific understanding went hand in hand with developments in scientific technology, as indeed they still do. The key developments in Hooke’s day were things like telescopes, microscopes, barometers and thermometers. Hooke had a hand (sometimes both hands) in the development of all these instruments, and many more. For that alone he would have been a key contributor to the revolution.

  fn4 The interest in undersea exploration would later be shared by Hooke’s younger contemporary, Edmond Halley, who was only eight in 1664.

  fn5 Hooke and Wren were probably related by marriage. One of Wren’s sisters had married a John Hooke, a member of a Hampshire family with relations just over the water on the Isle of Wight. In their correspondence, Wren often addressed Hooke as ‘Cousin’.

  fn6 A reference to the old idea of ‘crystalline spheres’ surrounding the Earth and carrying the planets.

  fn7 See Michael Hunter’s contribution to Bennett et al.

  fn8 See his contribution in Hunter & Schaffer.

  fn9 We have seen it suggested that what impressed Pepys were the illustrations in the book. But, fine though these are, you don’t sit up until 2 a.m. looking at drawings of a louse or the eye of a fly; what impressed him (and us) were the words.

  fn10 To give it its full title, Micrographia; or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies; Made by Magnifying Glasses, with Observations and Inquiries thereupon.

  fn11 Hooke drew many of the illustrations himself; Wren helped with some of them.

  fn12 Newton received his BA in January 1665, the same month that Micrographia was published.

  Chapter Three: Monumental Achievements

  fn1 Michael Cooper has suggested, in the light of what we know of Oldenburg’s character, that this was less out of a sense of duty than because Oldenburg loved sitting like a spider at the centre of the scientific web, privy to all the gossip and intrigues (which, as we shall see, he was not averse to stirring), and feared being replaced.

  fn2 This idea was important in the development of Edmond Halley’s career; see Chapter Eight.

  fn3 The curved scale covered one-quarter of a circle, ninety degrees, which gave the quadrant its name. The more compact version developed later covered sixty degrees, one-sixth of a circle, hence the name sextant.

  fn4 There is some uncertainty about most of these numbers; we follow Michael Cooper’s assessment.

  fn5 We use the term ‘City’ for the Court of Aldermen, to avoid confusion with the Royal Court.

  fn6 Formally, ‘His Majesties Commissioners for Rebuilding’.

  fn7 Formally, ‘Surveyors of New Buildings’.

  fn8 ‘Robert Hooke’s work as surveyor for the City of London in the aftermath of the Great Fire’. Part one. Notes and Records of the Royal Society, volume 51, pp 161–174, 1997.

  fn9 ‘Full-time’ apart from his scientific work and lecturing, that is.

  fn10 We have picked out those examples, but they are not exhaustive; for a full account of Hooke’s architectural work, see Cooper.

  fn11 On a Grander Scale.

  fn12 A further thirty-four steps, making a total of 345 (not 365 as is often mistakenly reported), lead from the viewing platform to the very top of the Monument. Being inside the Monument with its narrow winding stair feels a bit like being inside the rifled barrel of a huge gun.

  fn13 See Paul Kent & Allan Chapman.

  Chapter Four: Meanwhile …

  fn1 Incidentally, Hooke was no astrologer, and wrote disparagingly in his diary (25 November 1678) that it was ‘vaine’.

  fn2 There has been speculation that Hooke was actually the father of Mary, on the grounds that the Pisces symbol appears in his diary alongside Grace’s name the day before she left for the Isle of Wight. If so, the sixteen children and their descendants continued Hooke’s line, but this is no more than speculation.

  fn3 See Hunter & Schaffer.

  fn4 The exception is Henry Oldenburg, who is usually simply referred to as ‘Oldenburg’, but occasionally as ‘lying dogg Oldenburg’, ‘villain Oldenburg’ or ‘huff Oldenburg’.

  fn5 Hunter & Schaffer.

  fn6 Bennett, Cooper, Hunter & Jardine.

  fn7 See R.D. Waller, in ‘Lorenzo Magelotti in England, 1668–9’, Italian Studies, i. 2, 1937–8. Also quoted by ‘Espinasse.

  fn8 Newton’s oddities may have been related to his upbringing. His father died before Newton was born, his mother remarried when he was three, and he was sent to live with her elderly parents. He developed as a solitary man who had few close friends. He was also a religious nonconformist, who risked losing his Cambridge position if this became known, and probably a closet homosexual, another inducement to secretiveness.

  fn9 ‘Invented by Hooke 1658. Made by Tompion 1675.’ Even taking the 1658 date with a pinch of salt, it was Hooke’s invention.

  fn10 Huygens was formally referred to as ‘Christiaan Huygens of Zulichem’.

  fn11 Among the things Newton did choose to waste his time on were alchemy and slightly barmy religious studies, but we need not go into detail here except to note that if anyone crossed the line between genius and madness he did, at least some of the time.

  fn12 It is not clear whether he ever sent the letter, but a draft was found in his papers.

  fn13 Someone else with whom Newton would later have a furious argument.

  fn14 Source: David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: 1855).

  Chapter Five: From Hackney to the High Seas

  fn1 The spelling we use – Edmond Halley – is the same as on his marriage certificate, and on his will.

  fn2 Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxoniensis, Oxford UP, 1721.

  fn3 Quoted in The Observatory, volume 51, 1928, and by Cook.

  fn4 The timing comparison depended on knowing the longitude of St Helena, but this was straightforward to determine from astronomical observations made from the stable land surface rather than from the heaving deck of a ship.

  fn5 In the letter he uses as the usual shorthand the astrological symbols for Mercury and the Sun.

  fn6
Emphasis in the original.

  fn7 Translation by Ronan.

  fn8 Although Italian, because Cassini worked in France he is also known as Jean Cassini.

  Chapter Six: Of Spring and Secretaryship

  fn1 The Cutler and Gresham lectures were themselves pretty moribund at this time, with few, if any, people attending them, but Hooke still carried them out in accordance with the terms of his contract.

  fn2 ‘Later’ being the key word.

  fn3 J. E. Gordon, The New Science of Strong Materials. Harmondsworth, London, 1976.

  fn4 Hooke’s version appears in the Posthumous Works; our adaptation contains the essence of his argument.

  fn5 In one of the Cutlerian lectures, An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth, 1674, Hooke explicitly states that just as all ‘Celestial Bodies’ influence the Earth and one another through gravity, the Earth has a corresponding influence on their motions, and that ‘all bodies whatsoever that are put into a direct and simple motion, will so continue to move forward in a streight line, till they are by some other effectual powers deflected and bent into a Motion, describing a Circle, Ellipsis, or some other more compounded Curve Line.’

  fn6 Never at Rest.

  fn7 ‘Hooke and the law of universal gravitation’, British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 3 p. 260, 1967

  fn8 Newton was, ironically for a Fellow of Trinity College, an Arian, who rejected the idea of Jesus as an aspect of God. If this had become common knowledge, he would have been in deep trouble with the established Church, and forced to resign his university post. The theological complexities need not concern us, but one result was that Newton devoted an immense effort to studying ancient texts (or texts that were thought to be ancient) to find evidence that he was right and the establishment was wrong. This was not just paranoia (although Newton may well have been paranoid). His successor as Lucasian Professor, William Whiston, was indeed dismissed after publicly proclaiming what he saw as errors in the Anglican faith.

  fn9 See Turnbull, volume 2.

  fn10 There was a lot of correspondence between Newton and Halley in 1686, in connection with the publication of the Principia.

  fn11 In February 1685 King Charles II died and was succeeded by his brother, James II.

  fn12 Not the painter; his namesake.

  Chapter Seven: A Mission of Gravity

  fn1 Hooke used the astrological symbols for the planets, rather than spelling out their names.

  fn2 And remember that Newton did eventually acknowledge to Halley that he had read An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth.

  fn3 As Cometa.

  fn4 For comparison, remember that in his diary entry for 25 November 1678, Hooke referred to astrology as ‘vaine’.

  fn5 http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00167

  fn6 Louise Patterson, ‘Hooke’s Gravitation Theory and Its Influence on Newton, II’, Isis, vol 41, pp 304–305, 1950.

  fn7 Writing long after the event, de Moivre gives Newton and Halley the titles (‘Sir’ and ‘Dr’) that they did not hold in 1684.

  fn8 He did draft a paper on ‘The Laws of Circular Motion’ in the late summer of 1685, but it did not go as far as De Motu, and he never published it.

  fn9 Indeed, he was so committed to the project that when the Royal ran short of funds Halley in the end paid for its publication himself; happily, he probably made a small profit when the books were sold.

  fn10 This was something of an exaggeration, as we shall see in Chapter Nine, but contained a grain of truth.

  fn11 Richard Westfall has commented ‘without the concept of centripetal force, the theory of universal gravitation was inconceivable and Hooke’s contribution to gravitation was not then insignificant’ (‘Hooke and the Law of Universal Gravitation’, British Journal for the History of Science, volume 3 pp 245–261, 1967). This from a Newton biographer with no axe to grind for Hooke.

  Chapter Eight: Halley, Newton and the Comet

  fn1 It was a perfectly good book, but had been published in a lavish edition with many plates and was too expensive to attract many purchasers.

  fn2 This was around the time of the ‘Glorious Revolution’. Halley avoided politics, and is on record as saying ‘For my part, I am for the King in possession. If I am protected, I am content. I am sure we pay dear enough for our Protection & why should we not have the Benefit of it?’

  fn3 The system is sometimes distorted today by charging higher premiums for ‘high-risk’ individuals. The whole point of the actuarial approach is that the tables should be based on the entire population, not cherry-picked. But cherry-picking makes more money for the insurance companies.

  fn4 Calculus was discovered independently by the German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, which led to a bitter row about priority with the prickly Newton.

  fn5 It had only been in the 1570s, little more than a hundred years before the Principia, that Tycho Brahe had proved that comets travel past further away from us than the Moon is.

  fn6 Notably the Frenchman Alexis-Claude Clairaut.

  fn7 Admiralty letter dated 16 March 1698, reprinted in Thrower.

  fn8 I. Gray, ‘Peter the Great in England’, History Today, volume 6, 1956, pp 225–234.

  fn9 One of Peter’s favourite drunken games, apparently, involved being pushed at high speed in a wheelbarrow and crashing through the ornamental hedges in the garden. Three wheelbarrows were broken in this way during his stay.

  fn10 Reprinted by MacPike.

  Chapter Nine: Not Fade Away

  fn1 It is not clear whether these payments continued after 1688, but by that time Hooke had no need of the income.

  fn2 ‘Espinasse.

  fn3 The Buildings of England, Devon, 1989.

  fn4 See her contribution to London’s Leonardo.

  fn5 Curious Life.

  fn6 Drake.

  fn7 See Concerning Severall Remarkable Passages of my Life, Glasgow, 1911.

  fn8 One example of his ‘modern’ thinking is that he appreciated the value of a negative experimental result. ‘The discovery of a Negative is one way of restraint and limiting an Affirmative.’ Or, in the words Arthur Conan Doyle put into the mouth of Sherlock Holmes, ‘when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’.

  fn9 For Hooke, the term ‘earthquake’ includes volcanoes. He also refers to the craters of the Moon as having been formed by ‘eruption … somewhat Analogous to our Earthquakes’.

  fn10 The Nature of the Physical World, Cambridge UP, 1928.

  fn11 Quoted by Drake, from Robert Gunther, Further Correspondence of John Ray, Ray Society, London, 1928.

  fn12 Anthony Powell, John Aubrey and His Friends, Hogarth Press, London, 1988.

  fn13 Lyell himself did refer to Hooke directly. In his Principles of Geology, published in 1832, he described Hooke’s Earthquakes as ‘the most philosophical production of that age, in regard to the causes of former changes in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature.’

  fn14 ‘Biographical Account of the Late James Hutton, F.R.S.’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, volume V, pp 39–99.

  fn15 In one lecture, he mentions without comment (notably without adverse comment) ‘that the Chinese do make the World 88,640,000 Years old’.

  fn16 There is a maxim, ‘jurare in verba magistri’, which translates as ‘to swear by the words of the master’.

  fn17 This is exactly like the observations Darwin made in South America, which brought home to him the significance of geological uplift.

  fn18 As Drake notes, unlike some of his contemporaries Hooke was scrupulous about citing such ‘Authors’ and giving the sources of his information.

  fn19 Proceedings of the Royal Society, volume A201, pp 439–473.

  Chapter Ten: To Command a King’s Ship

  fn1 A fathom is about 1.8 metres.

  fn2 The King was abroad at the time.

  fn3 For comparison, the Beagle, on which Charles
Darwin sailed, was 242 tons, just over ninety feet long, twenty-four feet six inches in the beam, and drew twelve feet six inches. Beagle was small; Paramore was tiny. The dimensions given here are from the Deptford Yard records, dated 14 May 1694.

  fn4 Official documents give the name as Paramour, but we follow the spelling Halley used in his writings.

  fn5 The original log is in the British Museum.

  fn6 ‘Captain’ James Cook, for example, was actually a Lieutenant when he made his famous voyage.

  fn7 No relation to the clockmaker.

  fn8 They were then almost due north of the region of Antarctica now known as Halley Bay.

  fn9 If they had not had to turn back when they did, they might have discovered the islands now known as South Georgia, a little further south, which were found by James Cook on his second voyage.

  fn10 Initially, they were known as ‘Halleyan lines’.

  fn11 That is, not officially on the books; he was clearly esteemed as we use the term.

  fn12 Queen Anne had recently (on 8 March) acceded to the throne on the death of William III.

  fn13 The most thorough account of Halley’s work in the Adriatic has been provided by Cook; quotes in this section are taken from him.

  fn14 It was while Halley was occupied with this work that, on 2 March, his friend Robert Hooke died. Samuel Pepys died in the same year.

  fn15 It was as a result of this war that, among other things, Britain gained not only Gibraltar but also Minorca, and the whole of both Newfoundland and St Kitts, previously shared with France, while Spain lost the Netherlands to the Austrians.

  fn16 See MacPike.

  Chapter Eleven: Legacies