Mary Gribbin - Out of the Shadow of a Giant - How Newton Stood on the Shoulders of Hooke and Halley

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Text © John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin, 2017

Cover design by Jonathan Pelham

The authors assert their moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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.

Source ISBN: 9780008220594

Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008220600

Version: 2017-04-27

The seed from which the idea for this book grew was planted during a conversation with Lisa Jardine at the Royal Society, following a talk by one of us (JG). We got to speculating about how science in Britain might have developed if Isaac Newton had never lived. Our conclusion, such as it was, was that although Newton had inspired a great advance, and fully justified his status as the scientific giant of his day, there were only slightly lesser men who would have been well able to set British science off on the road it followed after Newton, although the journey down that road might have taken a little longer. Two men, in particular, stand out as thinkers who made major contributions, not just to scientific discovery but also to the development of the scientific method itself, who lived and worked in the shadow of Newton. They have by no means been forgotten, but even many of the people who still know the names of Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley have little knowledge of the remarkable breadth and depth of their work. Hooke is remembered for a rather mundane ‘law’ describing the behaviour of a stretched spring; Halley for the comet that bears his name, but which he did not discover. Their other achievements, however, are so important that between them they arguably add up to the scientific equivalent of another Newton. So rather belatedly (and, alas, too late for Lisa Jardine to see it) we have decided to attempt to bring them out from the shadow of Newton, and present the men and their achievements in all their glory.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Copyright Copyright Preface Introduction: Out of the Shadows A Note on Dates Chapter 1: From Freshwater to Oxford Chapter 2: The Most Ingenious Book That Ever I Read In My Life Chapter 3: Monumental Achievements Chapter 4: Meanwhile … Chapter 5: From Hackney to the High Seas Chapter 6: Of Spring and Secretaryship Chapter 7: A Mission of Gravity Chapter 8: Halley, Newton and the Comet Chapter 9: Not Fade Away Chapter 10: To Command a King’s Ship Chapter 11: Legacies Coda: How to do Science Picture Section Footnotes Bibliography Index Acknowledgements About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017 Text © John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin, 2017 Cover design by Jonathan Pelham The authors assert their moral right to be identified as the authors of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 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. Source ISBN: 9780008220594 Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008220600 Version: 2017-04-27

Preface PREFACE Preface Introduction: Out of the Shadows A Note on Dates Chapter 1: From Freshwater to Oxford Chapter 2: The Most Ingenious Book That Ever I Read In My Life Chapter 3: Monumental Achievements Chapter 4: Meanwhile … Chapter 5: From Hackney to the High Seas Chapter 6: Of Spring and Secretaryship Chapter 7: A Mission of Gravity Chapter 8: Halley, Newton and the Comet Chapter 9: Not Fade Away Chapter 10: To Command a King’s Ship Chapter 11: Legacies Coda: How to do Science Picture Section Footnotes Bibliography Index Acknowledgements About the Publisher The seed from which the idea for this book grew was planted during a conversation with Lisa Jardine at the Royal Society, following a talk by one of us (JG). We got to speculating about how science in Britain might have developed if Isaac Newton had never lived. Our conclusion, such as it was, was that although Newton had inspired a great advance, and fully justified his status as the scientific giant of his day, there were only slightly lesser men who would have been well able to set British science off on the road it followed after Newton, although the journey down that road might have taken a little longer. Two men, in particular, stand out as thinkers who made major contributions, not just to scientific discovery but also to the development of the scientific method itself, who lived and worked in the shadow of Newton. They have by no means been forgotten, but even many of the people who still know the names of Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley have little knowledge of the remarkable breadth and depth of their work. Hooke is remembered for a rather mundane ‘law’ describing the behaviour of a stretched spring; Halley for the comet that bears his name, but which he did not discover. Their other achievements, however, are so important that between them they arguably add up to the scientific equivalent of another Newton. So rather belatedly (and, alas, too late for Lisa Jardine to see it) we have decided to attempt to bring them out from the shadow of Newton, and present the men and their achievements in all their glory.