Out of the Shadow of a Giant

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