Pioneers of Science

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneers of Science, by Oliver Lodge This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Pioneers of Science Author: Oliver Lodge Release Date: April 26, 2009 [EBook #28613] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF SCIENCE *** Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber’s Note The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. This text contains a few phrases in Greek, with English transliterations given as mouse hover pop-ups: φενόμενα Your browser should be set to read the UTF-8 character set. P I O N E E R S O F S C I E N C E NEWTON NEWTON From the picture by Kneller, 1689, now at Cambridge P I O N E E R S O F S C I E N C E BY OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S. PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS IN VICTORIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LIVERPOOL WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONSL o n d o n MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1893 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, LONDON AND BUNGAY.P R E F A C E This book takes its origin in a course of lectures on the history and progress of Astronomy arranged for me in the year 1887 by three of my colleagues (A.C.B., J.M., G.H.R.), one of whom gave the course its name. The lectures having been found interesting, it was natural to write them out in full and publish. If I may claim for them any merit, I should say it consists in their simple statement and explanation of scientific facts and laws. The biographical details are compiled from all readily available sources, there is no novelty or originality about them; though it is hoped that there may be some vividness. I have simply tried to present a living figure of each Pioneer in turn, and to trace his influence on the progress of thought. I am indebted to many biographers and writers, among others to Mr. E.J.C. Morton, whose excellent set of lives published by the S.P.C.K. saved me much trouble in the early part of the course. As we approach recent times the subject grows more complex, and the men more nearly contemporaries; hence the biographical aspect diminishes and the scientific treatment becomes fuller, but in no case has it been allowed to become technical and generally unreadable. To the friends (C.C.C., F.W.H.M., E.F.R.) who with great kindness have revised the proofs, and have indicated places where the facts could be made more readily intelligible by a clearer statement, I express my genuine gratitude. University College, Liverpool, November, 1892.C O N T E N T S PART I LECTURE I PAGE COPERNICUS AND THE MOTION OF THE EARTH 2 LECTURE II TYCHO BRAHÉ AND THE EARLIEST OBSERVATORY 32 LECTURE III KEPLER AND THE LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION 56 LECTURE IV GALILEO AND THE INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE 80 LECTURE V GALILEO AND THE INQUISITION 108 LECTURE VI DESCARTES AND HIS THEORY OF VORTICES 136 LECTURE VII SIR ISAAC NEWTON 159 LECTURE VIII NEWTON AND THE LAW OF GRAVITATION 180 LECTURE IX NEWTON'S "PRINCIPIA" 203 PART II LECTURE X ROEMER AND BRADLEY AND THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT 232 LECTURE XI LAGRANGE AND LAPLACE—THE STABILITY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AND THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS 254 LECTURE XII HERSCHEL AND THE MOTION OF THE FIXED STARS 273 LECTURE XIII THE DISCOVERY OF THE ASTEROIDS 294 LECTURE XIV BESSEL—THE DISTANCES OF THE STARS, AND THE DISCOVERY OF STELLAR PLANETS 304 LECTURE XV THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE 317 LECTURE XVI COMETS AND METEORS 331LECTURE XVII THE TIDES 353 LECTURE XVIII THE TIDES, AND PLANETARY EVOLUTION 379I L L U S T R A T I O N S FIG. PAGE 1. Archimedes 8 2. Leonardo da Vinci 10 3. Copernicus 12 4. Homeric Cosmogony 15 5. Egyptian Symbol of the Universe 16 6. Hindoo Earth 17 7. Order of ancient Planets corresponding to the Days of the Week 19 8. Ptolemaic System 20 9. Specimens of Apparent Paths of Venus and of Mars among the stars 21 10. Apparent Epicyclic Orbits of Jupiter and Saturn 22 11. Egyptian System 24 12. True Orbits of Earth and Jupiter 25 13. Orbits of Mercury and Earth 25 14. Copernican System as frequently represented 26 15. Slow Movement of the North Pole in a Circle among the Stars 29 16. Tychonic system, showing the Sun with all the Planets revolving round the Earth 38 17. Portrait of Tycho 41 18. Early out-door Quadrant of Tycho 43 19. Map of Denmark, showing the Island of Huen 45 20. Uraniburg 46 21. Astrolabe 47 22. Tycho's large Sextant 48 23. The Quadrant in Uraniburg 49 24. Tycho's Form of Transit Circle 50 25. A Modern Transit Circle 51 26. Orbits of some of the Planets drawn to scale 60 27. Many-sided Polygon or Approximate Circle enveloped by Straight Lines 61 28. Kepler's Idea of the Regular Solids 62 29. Diagram of Equant 67 30. Excentric Circle supposed to be divided into equal Areas 68 31. Mode of drawing an Ellipse 70 32. Kepler's Diagram proving Equable Description of Areas for an Ellipse 71 33. Diagram of a Planet's Velocity in Different Parts of its Orbit 72 34. Portrait of Kepler 76 35. Curve described by a Projectile 82 36. Two Forms of Pulsilogy 87 37. Tower of Pisa 91 38. View of the Half-Moon in small Telescope 97 39. Portion of the Lunar Surface more highly magnified 98 40. Another Portion of the Lunar Surface 99 41. Lunar Landscape showing Earth 100 42. Galileo's Method of estimating the Height of Lunar Mountain 101 43. Some Clusters and Nebulæ 102 44. Stages of the Discovery of Jupiter's Satellites 103 45. Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites 105 46. Old Drawings of Saturn by Different Observers, with the imperfect Instruments of that day 111 47. Phases of Venus 112 48. Sunspots as seen with Low Power 113 49. A Portion of the Sun's Disk as seen in a powerful modern Telescope 114 50. Saturn and his Rings 115 51. Map of Italy 118 52. Portrait of Galileo 12653. Portrait of Descartes 148 54. Descartes's Eye Diagram 151 55. Descartes's Diagram of Vortices from his "Principia" 152 56. Manor-house of Woolsthorpe 162 57. Projectile Diagram 170 58. 171 59. Diagrams illustrative of those near the Beginning of Newton's "Principia" 174 60. 175} { 61- 175 2. 63. Prismatic Dispersion 182 64. A single Constituent of White Light is capable of no more Dispersion 183 65. Parallel Beam passing through a Lens 184 66. Newton's Telescope 186 67. The Sextant, as now made 187 68. Newton when young 196 69. Sir Isaac Newton 200 70. Another "Principia" Diagram 207 71. Well-known Model exhibiting the Oblate Spheroidal Form as a Consequence of spinning about a Central 219 Axis 72. Jupiter 221 73. Diagram of Eye looking at a Light reflected in a Distant Mirror through the Teeth of a revolving Wheel 238 74. Fizeau's Wheel, showing the appearance of distant Image seen through its Teeth 239 75. Eclipses of one of Jupiter's Satellites 241 76. A Transit instrument for the British Astronomical Expedition, 1874 243 77. Diagram of equatorially mounted Telescope 245 78. Aberration Diagram 250 79. Showing the three Conjunction Places in the Orbits of Jupiter and Saturn 259 80. Lord Rosse's Drawing of the Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici 269 81. Saturn 271 82. Principle of Newtonian Reflector 278 83. Herschel's 40-foot telescope 283 84. William Herschel 285 85. Caroline Herschel 287 86. Double Stars 288 87. Old Drawing of the Cluster in Hercules 290 88. Old Drawing of the Andromeda Nebula 291 89. The Great Nebula in Orion 292 90. Planetary Orbits to scale 297 91. Diagram illustrating Parallax 307 92. The Königsberg Heliometer 312 93. Perturbations of Uranus 320 94. Uranus' and Neptune's Relative Positions 325 95. Meteorite 333 96. Meteor Stream crossing Field of Telescope 334 97. Diagram of Direction of Earth's Orbital Motion 335 98. Parabolic and Elliptic Orbits 340 99. Orbit of Halley's Comet 341 100. Various Appearances of Halley's Comet when last seen 342 101. Head of Donati's Comet of 1858 343 102. Comet 344 103. Encke's Comet 345 104. Biela's Comet as last seen in two Portions 346 105. Radiant Point Perspective 348 106. Present Orbit of November Meteors 349 107. Orbit of November Meteors before and after Encounter with Uranus 351 108. The Mersey 355 109. Co-tidal Lines, showing the way the Tidal Wave reaches the British Isles from the Atlantic 359110. Whirling Earth Model 364 111. Earth and Moon Model 365 112. Earth and Moon (Earth's Rotation Neglected) 366 113. Maps showing how comparatively Free from Land Obstruction the Ocean in the Southern Hemisphere Is 369 114. Spring and Neap Tides 370 115. Tidal Clock 371 116. Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) 373 117. Tide-gauge for recording Local Tides 375 118. Harmonic Analyzer 375 119. Tide-predicter 376 120. Weekly Sheet of Curves 377 P I O N E E R S O F S C I E N C E P A R T I F R O M D U S K T O D A Y L I G H T D A T E S A N D S U M M A R Y O F F A C T S F O R L E C T U R E I Physical Science of the Ancients. Thales 640 b.c., Anaximander 610 b.c., Pythagoras 600 b.c., Anaxagoras 500 b.c., Eudoxus 400 b.c., Aristotle 384 b.c., Aristarchus 300 b.c., Archimedes 287 b.c., Eratosthenes 276 b.c., Hipparchus 160 b.c., Ptolemy 100 a.d. Science of the Middle Ages. Cultivated only among the Arabs; largely in the forms of astrology, alchemy, and algebra. Return of Science to Europe. Roger Bacon 1240, Leonardo da Vinci 1480, (Printing 1455), Columbus 1492, Copernicus 1543. A sketch of Copernik's life and work. Born 1473 at Thorn in Poland. Studied mathematics at Bologna. Became an ecclesiastic. Lived at Frauenburg near mouth of Vistula. Substituted for the apparent motion of the heavens the real motion of the earth. Published tables of planetary motions. Motion still supposed to be in epicycles. Worked out his ideas for 36 years, and finally dedicated his work to the Po