Part 22 (1/2)

Also by Edward Dolnick The Forger's Spell The Rescue Artist Down the Great Unknown Madness on the Couch

Copyright THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE. Copyright 2011 by Edward Dolnick. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Copyright 2011 by Edward Dolnick. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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1 The historian Jules Michelet described the Middle Ages as ”a thousand years without a bath.” The historian Jules Michelet described the Middle Ages as ”a thousand years without a bath.”

2 For convenience I will use the word For convenience I will use the word scientist scientist, though the word only came into use in the 1800s. The seventeenth century had not settled on a convenient term for these investigators. Sometimes they were called ”natural philosophers” or ”virtuosos.”

3 Christopher Wren's father, a prominent cleric who also had a deep interest in mathematics, calculated the apocalypse in a different way. A list of the Roman numerals, in order from biggest to smallest-MDCLXVI-corresponded to the date 1666, which ”may bode some ominous Matter, and perhaps the last End.” Christopher Wren's father, a prominent cleric who also had a deep interest in mathematics, calculated the apocalypse in a different way. A list of the Roman numerals, in order from biggest to smallest-MDCLXVI-corresponded to the date 1666, which ”may bode some ominous Matter, and perhaps the last End.”

4 They cited pa.s.sages such as Revelation 11:3: ”I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” Scholars took each day to represent a year. They cited pa.s.sages such as Revelation 11:3: ”I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” Scholars took each day to represent a year.

5Pepys is p.r.o.nounced ”peeps.” is p.r.o.nounced ”peeps.”

6 The The ye ye we are all familiar with (”Ye Fox and Hounds Tavern”) was p.r.o.nounced ”the we are all familiar with (”Ye Fox and Hounds Tavern”) was p.r.o.nounced ”the.” The use of the letter y y was a typographical convention, like was a typographical convention, like f f for for s. s.

7 G.o.d watched over the highest and the humblest. In Queen Elizabeth's reign the bishops of Canterbury, London, and Ely declared ”this continued sterility in your Highness' person to be a token of G.o.d's displeasure towards us.” G.o.d watched over the highest and the humblest. In Queen Elizabeth's reign the bishops of Canterbury, London, and Ely declared ”this continued sterility in your Highness' person to be a token of G.o.d's displeasure towards us.”

8 In 1823 a twenty-one-year-old Hungarian named Johann Bolyai conceived the inconceivable: a universe in which parallel lines meet and straight lines curve. In 1919 Einstein proved that we live in such a universe. In 1823 a twenty-one-year-old Hungarian named Johann Bolyai conceived the inconceivable: a universe in which parallel lines meet and straight lines curve. In 1919 Einstein proved that we live in such a universe.

9 Digby a.s.sured his audience that ”there is great quant.i.ty of it in Ireland.” Digby a.s.sured his audience that ”there is great quant.i.ty of it in Ireland.”

10 Bacon's zeal for experimentation may have done him in. On a winter's day when he happened to be in the company of the royal physician, Bacon suddenly had the bright idea that perhaps snow could preserve meat. ”They alighted out of the coach and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a fowl,” wrote the memoirist John Aubrey, and Bacon stuffed the bird with snow. Bacon came down with what proved to be a fatal case of pneumonia. He blamed the snow but noted on his deathbed that the story had a bright side. ”As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well.” Bacon's zeal for experimentation may have done him in. On a winter's day when he happened to be in the company of the royal physician, Bacon suddenly had the bright idea that perhaps snow could preserve meat. ”They alighted out of the coach and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a fowl,” wrote the memoirist John Aubrey, and Bacon stuffed the bird with snow. Bacon came down with what proved to be a fatal case of pneumonia. He blamed the snow but noted on his deathbed that the story had a bright side. ”As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well.”

11 The ancient world had clung just as fiercely to the code of secrecy. Legend has it that Pythagoras banished one of his followers (or in some accounts threw him off a boat, drowning him) for ”telling men who were not worthy” a dreadful mathematical secret. Hippasus's sin was revealing to outsiders the discovery that certain numbers (in this case, the square root of 2) cannot be written down precisely (14/10 is close, for instance, but The ancient world had clung just as fiercely to the code of secrecy. Legend has it that Pythagoras banished one of his followers (or in some accounts threw him off a boat, drowning him) for ”telling men who were not worthy” a dreadful mathematical secret. Hippasus's sin was revealing to outsiders the discovery that certain numbers (in this case, the square root of 2) cannot be written down precisely (14/10 is close, for instance, but no no fraction is exact). The Greeks found this numerical truth horrifying, a rip in the cosmic fabric. fraction is exact). The Greeks found this numerical truth horrifying, a rip in the cosmic fabric.

12 We still see relics of that prejudice against ”applied” knowledge today. The historian Paolo Rossi notes that the term ”liberal arts” originally came into use to mark off those areas of study deemed proper for a gentleman's education. These were the fields suited to free men ( We still see relics of that prejudice against ”applied” knowledge today. The historian Paolo Rossi notes that the term ”liberal arts” originally came into use to mark off those areas of study deemed proper for a gentleman's education. These were the fields suited to free men (liberi) rather than to servants or slaves.

13As a thirteen-year-old, Hooke briefly apprenticed with the famous portrait painter Peter Lely. (It was Lely whom Oliver Cromwell instructed to ”paint my picture truly like me,” warts and all.) Hooke's artistic career came to an early end when he found he was allergic to the paints and oils in Lely's studio.

14The esteemed eighteenth-century mathematician Laplace, for example, inspired despair even in his admirers. ”I never came across one of Laplace's 'Thus it plainly appears,' ” wrote one, ”without feeling sure that I have hours of hard work before me to fill up the chasm and find out and show how it plainly appears.”

15 ”As one of [Thomas More's] daughters was pa.s.sing under the bridge,” according to John Aubrey, ”looking on her father's head, said she, 'That head has lain many a time in my lap, would to G.o.d it would fall into my lap as I pa.s.s under.' She had her wish, and it did fall into her lap, and is now preserved in a vault in the cathedral church at Canterbury.” ”As one of [Thomas More's] daughters was pa.s.sing under the bridge,” according to John Aubrey, ”looking on her father's head, said she, 'That head has lain many a time in my lap, would to G.o.d it would fall into my lap as I pa.s.s under.' She had her wish, and it did fall into her lap, and is now preserved in a vault in the cathedral church at Canterbury.”

16The word disease disease is a relic of this theory. When the humors fell out of balance, the patient's is a relic of this theory. When the humors fell out of balance, the patient's ease ease gave way to gave way to dis-ease. dis-ease.

17 Like James Thurber, who never managed to see anything through a microscope but a reflection of his own eye, Pepys had trouble getting the hang of his microscope. ”My wife and I with great pleasure,” he wrote in his diary in August 1664, ”but with great difficulty before we could come to find the manner of seeing anything.” Like James Thurber, who never managed to see anything through a microscope but a reflection of his own eye, Pepys had trouble getting the hang of his microscope. ”My wife and I with great pleasure,” he wrote in his diary in August 1664, ”but with great difficulty before we could come to find the manner of seeing anything.”