by John Gribbin
fn1 Now in the University Library in Cambridge.
fn2 The son and daughters were now in their twenties.
fn3 Flamsteed, as Astronomer Royal, also published his prediction of the eclipse path, but this turned out to be less accurate than Halley’s.
fn4 No relation to Halley’s former lieutenant.
fn5 In full, Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande.
fn6 See R. and T. Rienits, The Voyages of Captain Cook, Hamlyn, London, 1976.
fn7 Hawaii, which would have been an even better location, only became known to Europeans when Cook himself found it on his second voyage.
fn8 To put the date in another context, this was a few weeks before the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, on 15 August 1769.
Coda: How to do Science
fn1 See Derham/Hooke, 1726.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Angus Armitage, Edmond Halley, Nelson, London, 1966.
John Aubrey, Brief Lives (edited by Andrew Clark), Clarendon Press, Oxford, two volumes, 1898.
Jim Bennett, Michael Cooper, Michael Hunter & Lisa Jardine, London’s Leonardo, Oxford UP, 2003.
Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London, four volumes published 1756–57.
Savile Bradbury, The Evolution of the Microscope, Pergamon, Oxford, 1967.
F. F. Centore, Robert Hooke’s Contribution to Mechanics, Martinus Nashoft, The Hague, 1970.
Alan Cook, Edmond Halley, Oxford UP, 1998.
Michael Cooper, Robert Hooke and the Rebuilding of London, Sutton, Stroud, 2003.
J. G. Crowther, Founders of British Science, Cresset Press, London, 1960.
Clara de Milt, ‘Robert Hooke, Chemist’, Journal of Chemical Education, volume 16, pp 503–519, 1939.
William Derham, Philosophical Experiments and Observations of the Late Eminent Dr. Robert Hooke, originally published 1726, Cassell, London, 1967. See also Hooke, below.
Kerry Downes, Christopher Wren, Allen Lane, 1971.
Ellen Tan Drake, Restless Genius: Robert Hooke and his Earthly Thoughts, Oxford UP, 1996.
Margaret ‘Espinasse, Robert Hooke, Heinemann, London, 1956.
John Evelyn, Diary, edited by E. S. de Beer, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1955.
E. G. Forbes, A. J. Meadows & D. Howse, Greenwich Observatory, 3 volumes, Taylor & Francis, London, 1975.
John Gribbin, Science: A History, Allen Lane, London, 2002.
R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, volume 6 & volume 7, 1930, volume 8, 1931, volume 10, 1935.
A. Rupert Hall, Isaac Newton, Blackwell, Oxford, 1992.
Robert Hooke, Micrographia, Royal Society, London, 1665. Facsimile edition, Dover, New York, 1961.
Robert Hooke, Lectures and Discourses on Earthquakes, reprinted from the Posthumous Works (edited by Waller) in an edition published by Arno Press, New York, 1978; also see the collected lectures in Drake.
Robert Hooke (edited by William Derham), Philosophical Experiments and Observations of the Late Eminent Dr. Robert Hooke, originally published 1726, reprinted Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish, Montana, 2010.
Robert Hooke, Diaries, see Robinson & Adams.
Michael Hunter, The Royal Society and its Fellows, British Society for the History of Science, Chalfont St Giles, 1982; revised edition 1994.
Michael Hunter & Simon Schaffer (editors), Robert Hooke: New Studies, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1989.
Stephen Inwood, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Macmillan, London, 2002.
Lisa Jardine, The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
Paul Kent & Allan Chapman (editors), Robert Hooke and the English Renaissance, Gracewing, Leominster, 2005.
Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of Dr. Robert Hooke, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966.
Joseph Jérôme Lalande, Tables astronomique de M Halley pour les planetes et les cometes, including ‘l’histoire de la comete de 1757’, Durand, Paris, 1759.
Rachel Laudan, From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650–1830, University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, John Murray, London, 1830.
Eugene MacPike (editor), Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1932. Includes a biographical memoir of Halley, probably written by his contemporary Martin Folkes, who was President of the Royal Society from 1741 to 1752.
Eugene MacPike, Dr Edmond Halley (1656–1742), A bibliographical guide to his life and work, arranged chronologically, Taylor & Francis, London, 1939.
Isaac Newton, Principia, Royal Society, 1687; third edition in English (translated by Andrew Motte as Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and System of the World) published in 1729 and available in a Cambridge UP edition published in 1934.
Richard Nichols, The Diaries of Robert Hooke, Book Guild, Lewes, 1994.
Samuel Pepys, Diary (edited by R. C. Latham & W. Matthews), eleven volumes published 1970–83 by Bell & Hyman, London.
Roger Pilkington, Robert Boyle, Murray, London, 1959.
Roy Porter, The Making of Geology: Earth Science in Britain 1660–1815, Cambridge UP, 1977.
Henry Robinson and Walter Adams, editors, The Diary of Robert Hooke, Taylor & Francis, London, 1935.
John Robison, in On the Elements of Chemistry (based on lectures given by Joseph Black), William Creech, Edinburgh, 1803.
Colin Ronan, Edmond Halley, Macdonald, London, 1970.
Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal Society of London, Royal Society, 1665; facsimile edition published by Routledge, London, 1959.
William Stukeley, Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s life, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Kindle, 2016.
Norman Thrower, The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley, Hakluyt Society, London, 1981.
H. W. Turnbull (editor), The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, seven volumes, Cambridge UP, 1959–60.
Richard Waller (editor), The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke (1705; facsimile available online at Google books).
Richard Westfall, Never at Rest, Cambridge UP, 1980.
See also:
http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk
INDEX
The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.
Admiralty 207n, 240–1, 242–4, 246–7, 250–1, 254–6, 257, 271, 280
air pump 15–18, 28, 32–4, 50, 51
al-Battani (Albategnius) 199–200
Alfrey, George 243
Andrade, E. N. 235
Anne, Queen of England 182, 256n, 257, 258, 260, 264
arch, geometry of 79–81
Aske’s Hospital, Hoxton 75
Aston, Francis 157, 158, 188
Astronomer Royal xiii, xiv, 108–9, 110, 115, 117, 118, 143, 186, 194–5, 263, 266, 268n, 270, 271, 272, 273
atmospheric circulation 189, 230–1
atoms: Halley makes first scientific estimate of size of xiv, 195–6, 236; Hooke and concept of 35, 93–4, 140–1, 152
Aubrey, John 85–6, 89, 99, 112, 113, 133, 137, 227n; Brief Lives 1, 4–5, 5n, 6; Memoires of Natural Remarques in the County of Wilts 226–7, 228
Auzout, Adrien 100
Bacon, Francis xvi, 8–9, 44; Novum Organum 8–9
Barrow, Isaac 29, 97
Barton, Kitty 269
Bateman, Sir Anthony 30
Beagle voyage (1831–6) xiv, 225, 241n
Benbow, Rear Admiral John 207, 244–5
Bennett, John 136
Berkeley, George, Lord 60, 133
Bernard, Edward 114, 197, 198
Bethlehem Royal Hospital (‘Bedlam’), London 75
Blackburne, Richard 83
Bloodworth, Sir Thomas 84
Born, I. von 229
Bouchar, Charles 115
Boyle, Earl of Cork, Richard 12, 13
Boyle, Francis 12–13
Boyle, Robert xiii, 8, 11–20, 23, 24, 26,
27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 37, 46, 60, 61, 69, 87, 88, 89, 98–9, 117, 136, 137, 141, 153, 161, 214–15; ‘Boyle’s Law’ xiii, 18–20, 24; Hydrostatical Paradoxes 61; New Experiments Physico-Mechanical Touching the Spring of the Air (1660) 18
Brahe, Tycho 108, 115, 117, 120, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 131, 136, 202n, 266
Bridewell Hospital, London 75
Broghill, Lord 13
Brooke, J. M. 38
Brouncker, Lord 27–8, 45, 89, 97, 102, 104
Burchett, Josiah 247
Burnet, Bishop Thomas 220–1, 224
Busby, Richard 5, 6, 7, 10, 76
calculus 181, 201–2, 201n
Cambridge University xii, xv, 7, 10, 27, 29, 41, 58, 83, 95, 97, 97n, 105, 114, 134, 137, 147n, 158, 168, 170, 171, 172, 174, 179–82, 187, 262, 263n, 275
capillary action 26, 28
Caroline, Queen of England 273
carriage design 60
Cassini, Giovanni 55, 130, 130n, 131, 132
centripetal gravitational attraction 43, 146, 147, 150, 151, 165, 169, 170, 172, 173, 175–6, 177, 177n, 183, 275, 282
Charles I, King of England 2, 3, 4, 8, 185
Charles II, King of England 23, 26, 60, 66, 67, 68, 80, 86, 99, 108, 109, 112, 113, 115, 117–18, 122–3, 136, 157n, 179, 180, 184, 186
Charles II, King of Spain 257
Christina, Queen of Sweden 132
Clairaut, Alexis-Claude 204n, 273–4
Clerke, Mr 118, 119, 121
clocks, watches and timekeeping 2, 11, 20, 21–4, 38, 60, 63, 92–3, 93n, 99, 100, 120, 135–6, 139, 140, 142, 160, 224
Cock, Christopher 97
College (later, Royal College) of Physicians, Warwick Lane, London 74, 97
comets v–vi, xiii, xiv, 40–1, 43, 94, 111, 130–4, 136, 153, 165, 170, 175, 176, 183, 191–4, 199, 201–5, 202n, 270, 273–5, 279
Commissioners for Churches 73–4
Conduitt, John 168
Conway, Lord 152
Cook, Alan xii, 118n, 123, 185, 186, 237
Cook, Captain James 243, 243n, 251n, 273, 278–9, 278n, 280
Cooper, Michael 60n, 65n, 68, 71, 72n, 76, 150, 164, 176
Copernicus, Nicolaus 12, 42, 162, 222
Crabtree, William 276
Crawley, Thomas 83, 137, 143
Cromwell, Oliver 4n, 9, 25
Cromwell, Richard 25
Cutler, Sir John 30–2, 43, 155, 210, 216, 263
Cutlerian Lectures 30–2, 39, 43, 53, 65, 81, 89, 124–5, 136, 136n, 146n, 155, 163, 210, 216, 263
Dacres, Arthur 29, 30
Darwin, Charles xiv, 132, 225, 230, 232n, 233, 234, 241n
Davenport, Francis 254
Derham, William 176
Descartes, René 104, 107, 160
Digges, Leonard 96
diving/undersea exploration xiv, 39, 236, 237–40
Dixon, Jeremiah 277–8
Dodson, John 243
Drake, Ellen Tan: Restless Genius 217, 218–19, 225, 226n, 227, 228, 229, 230, 233n
Dryden, John 5
Dunbar, Midshipman John 243
Dunham, David 281, 282
Durdans, Surrey 60–1, 62, 133
Earth: distance to the Sun xiv, 121, 197, 269–70, 275–80; history of xiii, 218–35; shape of 224–5; terrestrial equatorial bulge idea 120, 176, 213, 223, 224–5
earthquakes xiii, 3, 52, 54, 62, 95, 216, 218, 221–2, 221n, 223–4, 225, 228, 229n, 230, 234
East India Company 117–18
Eddington, Arthur 225
Eddy, Jack 280–1
Einstein, Albert 159
Elizabeth I, Queen of England 8, 117
Endeavour, HMS 278–9, 278n
English Civil War (1642–51) xvi, 1, 3, 8, 9, 12–13
Espinasse, Margaret 47, 49, 54, 87, 93, 93n, 176, 211n
Essex, Earl of 184–5, 186
Evelyn, John 9–10, 11, 33, 66, 67, 156, 207
evolution 53, 132, 218, 230, 233–4
experimental method: emergence of 8–9, 10, 19–20, 44
Falconbird 248
Fatio de Duillier, Nicholas 181–2, 213
Ferber, J. J. 229
Field, Gregory 119
FitzRoy, Admiral Robert 38
Flamsteed, John xiii, 94, 108–9, 110, 115–18, 122, 124, 125–6, 127, 128, 130, 132, 143, 154, 186, 194–5, 197, 198–9, 203, 207, 263, 264–6, 265n, 268n, 271; catalogue of northern stars 264–6; Doctrine of the Sphere 116
Fleet Ditch, London 72–3, 83, 97
Flood, biblical 3, 193–4, 198, 223–4, 226, 228, 231–2
Folkes, Martin 208
Ford, Brian J. 47
fossils xiii, 3, 51–3, 62, 210, 218–35
Francis, Alban 179
French Academy of Sciences 274
Freshwater, Isle of Wight 1–4, 5
Fresnel, Augustin 103
Frost Fair, London (1683–4) 155–6
Gale, Thomas 113, 158, 188, 198
Galilei, Galileo xvi, 8, 12, 15, 21, 22, 41, 55, 56
gange 214
Garraway’s coffee house, Exchange Alley, London 88
Gassendi, Pierre 148
geology 3, 51–4, 56, 62, 210, 218–35
George I, King of England 260
George II, King of England 273
George, Prince of Denmark 264
Gilbert, William xvi, 12; De Magnete 8
Glorious Revolution (1688–9) 180, 195n, 210, 211–12
Goodman, Cardell 2, 5, 7
Graham, George 272
Grand Tour of Europe xiv, 12, 129–30, 133, 196
gravity: centripetal gravitational attraction idea 43, 146, 147, 150, 151, 165, 169, 170, 172, 173, 175–6, 177, 177n, 183, 275, 282; inverse square law of xiv, 11, 21, 134, 137, 143–4, 150–3, 156–7, 164–7, 170–2, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178, 191, 202, 270, 275, 282; Newton’s First Law and xii, xiv–xv, 41, 43, 145–52, 162–3, 177; universal theory of xii, xiv–xv, 11, 21, 41–3, 55–7, 61–2, 134, 136–7, 143–51, 144n, 147n, 152, 153, 156–7, 158, 159–78, 183, 189, 224, 275, 282 see also Hooke, Robert and Newton, Sir Isaac
Great Fire of London (1666) xiii, 58, 63, 64–70, 68n, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79, 80, 84, 92, 94, 113, 162, 163
Great Plague (1665–6) 58, 59, 62, 162, 169
Great Red Spot of Jupiter 55, 63
Greatorex, Ralph 17, 18
Greeks, Ancient 5, 6, 8, 18, 51, 113, 114, 119, 264, 267
Green, Charles 278, 279, 280
Gregory, David 198–9, 264
Gregory, James 96, 97–8, 264, 266, 276
Gresham College, City of London 3, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 37, 39, 40, 43, 54, 59, 62, 65, 67, 68, 70, 75, 78, 82, 88, 89, 97, 100, 136n, 143, 152–3, 154–5, 183, 188, 216, 217, 228
Gresham, Sir Thomas 26, 64–5
Grew, Nehemiah 138, 143, 145
Grimaldi, Francesco 104
Giles, Tom 83–4, 137, 143, 217
Haak, Theodore 89, 214
Hadley, John 64
Halley (née Robinson), Anne 112
Halley, Edmond: acerage of each English county, calculates 200–1; Al-Battani translation 199–200; Astronomer Royal, appointed second xiv, 110, 186, 194–5, 263, 266, 270, 271, 273; atoms, first scientific estimate of size of xiv, 195–6; background xiii, 112; birth xiii, 14, 112; Catalogue of the Southern Skies xiii–xiv, 114, 122, 126, 264; childhood 112–13; comet, first encounter with a (1680–1) 130, 131, 132–3, 153; comet observations (August and September, 1682) 134; comets, detailed study of published (1705) (1726) 201–5 see also Halley’s Comet; degree, King recommends award of (first degree ever awarded specifically for research) xiv, 8, 122–3; Deputy Comptroller of the Royal Mint, Chester 205–7, 208, 238, 242; dies 273; diving bell/suit, invents practical (‘A Method of Walking under Water’) xiv, 236, 237–40; Doctor of Civil Laws, awarded degree by University of Oxford 270–1; eclipse of Sun observations (22nd April, 1715) 267–9, 281–2; father’s death and xiv, 184–7; father’s support of/allowance xiii, xiv, 118; Flamsteed and xiii, 109, 110, 115–16, 117, 194–
5, 197, 264–6; Flood, paper on biblical 193–4, 198; Glorious Revolution, on 195n, 211–12; Grand Tour of Europe xiv, 129–33, 196; Guynie, attempts to salvage cargo from and 197–8, 237–8; Halley’s comet and v, xiii, xiv, 40, 170, 203–5, 270, 273–4; Hevelius, work with on open sights survey of northern skies 40, 94, 124, 126–9; Hooke, first meets 110; inverse square law, asks Newton to explain why laws of planetary motion seem to be derived from xiv, 134, 156–7, 164–5, 170–2, 187; Islington house 133–4, 186; Lagos disaster (1693) and finances of 205–6, 207; longitude prize and 272–3; marries 133; Mercury transit measured on St Helena 120–1, 276; Moon, links speed of orbit to tidal influences 199–200; Moon, observes over eighteen-year Saros cycle 272; name, pronunciation and spelling of 111, 111n; Newton, first meets 130; Newton, letters from on Hooke and gravity 146, 149, 150, 150n, 151, 169; Newton seems to admit knowledge of An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth to 146n, 164n; Newton meeting with (1684) 134, 157, 170–2, 187; 1970s investigation into links between solar activity and climate uses Halley data on (1715) eclipse 280–2; nova, recognises two types of 266; Oxford University xiii, xiv, 8, 113–16; Philosophical Transactions, editor of 188, 192–3, 201; population/demographic statistics observations 132, 196, 196n; Principia overseen and funded by xiv, xv, 128, 172–7, 173n, 184, 187, 189–93, 205; quadrants, acknowledges Hooke’s primacy in using telescopic sights in 64, 212–13; relative achievements of Hooke, Newton and 282; Royal Observatory and 109, 110, 116, 264–5; Royal Society, Clerk of (first) 158, 173, 187–93, 198, 206, 248; Royal Society, elected Fellow of xiv, 122; Royal Society, elected to Council of 263; Royal Society, re-elected as Fellow of the 254; Royal Society, Secretary of 273; Royal Society Vice-President 273; Savilian Professor of Astronomy, Oxford, applies for 197–9; Savilian Professor of Geometry, Oxford xiv, 261, 262–3, 273; schooldays xiii, 113; South Seas, first voyage to as Master and Commander of Paramore (1698–9) xiv, 207, 208–9, 236, 240–8, 241n; South Seas, second voyage to as Master and Commander of Paramore (1699–1700) xiv, 248–54, 249n; spy in the Adriatic, secret work as a (1702–3) xiv, 257–61, 257n, 259n; St Helena trip to survey southern skies (1676–8) xiii–xiv, 117–22, 126, 128, 129, 193, 197, 224–5, 230–1, 276; stellar motion, discovery of 266–7; survey of English tides (1701) 254–6; terrestrial magnetism, publishes ideas on 200; Thames, charts the mouth of (1689) xiv, 214, 236–7, 240; three scientific papers produced in last year as Oxford undergraduate 116–17; time-keeping measurements on St Helena 120, 224–5; translation of Ancient Greek mathematical treatises 264; Tsar Peter the Great and 207–8; undersea exploration, interest in xiv, 39n, 236, 237–40; Venus transit and calculation of distance from Earth to the Sun, involvement in xiv, 121, 197, 269–70, 275–80