Halley's Quest A Selfless Genius and His Troubled Paramore (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8 Compass Points
8 Compass Points
Pages 111-126
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 111... ...
Pernambuco was protected by a natural reef and distinguished by versatile inland waterways inspired by those of Venice. The city was in the process of becoming the busiest port in Brazil after the Dutch departed in 1654, sparking an era of strong nativism.
|
From page 112... ...
A 1665 account of law and order on Barbados, which was Halley's next port, is telling. The powers that be accused a successful but supposedly unbalanced planter named John Allin of blasphemy, which earned him a stern reprimand from the newly appointed governor, Lord Francis Willoughby of Parham.
|
From page 113... ...
Such mundane events as thunder and lightning would not be explained for nearly a century. Besides observing that hurricanes occur in the latitude of the Caribbean Islands as well as other places like the China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, he may have been the first to point out the existence of a hurricane season.
|
From page 114... ...
Halley first wrote about diving bells in a March 1689 paper he presented to the Royal Society. He knew of West Indian pearl divers who could plunge to great depths to recover treasures by holding their breath for seemingly impossible periods.
|
From page 115... ...
There he continued his scientific writing and observations, patiently waiting to embark on his debut journey aboard the Paramore. During this interlude, likely much to his chagrin, King William had assigned Halley's new vessel to a visiting Russian czar named Peter, who was interested in learning about the latest in shipbuilding and mingling with great British minds of the day.
|
From page 116... ...
Newton used Halley's observations in writing his Opticks, which he published in 1704, only after his favorite nemesis, Hooke, had died: Of this kind is an experiment lately related to me by Mr. Halley, who in diving deep into the Sea in a diving Vessel, found in a clear Sunshine Day, that when he was sunk many Fathoms deep into the Water the upper part of his Hand on which the Sun shone directly through the Water and through a small Glass Window in the Vessel appeared of a red Colour, like that of a Damask Rose, and the Water below and the under part of his Hand illuminated by light reflected from the Water below looked green.
|
From page 117... ...
At full sail the 94-foot-long "fireship," which carried explosives and an armament of about eight small guns, must have been a familiar and somewhat soothing sight. In battle such a vessel was sailed as close as possible or even attached to a much larger and more heavily armed enemy ship and then ignited by a slow match and a train of powder.
|
From page 118... ...
In a later letter to Secretary of the Admiralty Burchett, Halley described the Barbados plague as "a severe pestilential disease, which scarce spares anyone and had it been as mortal as common would in a great measure have depeopled the island." Disease actually was a greater peril at sea than wrecking or workrelated accidents. Each year for every thousand English sailors who shipped out, roughly 5 would suffer an accidental death, and 10 would drown in shipwrecks.
|
From page 119... ...
He would return two years later in 1699 aboard HMS Roebuck, reaching Dirk Hartog Island in western Australia. The Roebuck would wreck on its return voyage to England, however, sinking off Ascension Island in 1701.
|
From page 120... ...
Available statistics reveal that mortality at about the time of Halley's voyages was in general significantly higher on Dutch ships than on English ones. Edward Barlow, a sea captain who traveled most sea routes between 1659 and 1703 and even had a run-in with Captain Kidd and his Adventure Galley in May 1697, speculated that this was because "English ships commonly make shorter passages and are better provided with provisions."Ironically, this was the only instance in his Journal that he had anything remotely positive to say about the food served on English ships.
|
From page 121... ...
Although similar data were available for London and Dublin, Halley believed they were skewed by fluxes in immigration that interfered with recordkeeping and increased adult mortality rates as evidenced by"the great excess of the funerals above the births." Halley devised a table giving values of annuities for up to age 70 for the presumably more stable Breslau population. He used five-year intervals (which are still used by contemporary insurance companies)
|
From page 122... ...
Whereas it appears hereby, that the one-half of those that are born, are dead in seventeen years time. So that instead of murmuring at what we call untimely death, we ought with patience and unconcern to submit to that dissolution, which is the necessary condition of our perishable materials, and of our nice and frail structure and composition: and to account it a blessing, that we have survived perhaps many years that period of life, where at the one-half of the race of mankind does not arrive." He also noted that if more women were married, the population could grow more quickly; for example, four out of every six women could have a child each instead of one of every six: The political consequences hereof I shall not insist upon; but the strength and glory of a King consisting in the multitude of his subjects, I shall only hint, that above all things celibacy should be discouraged, as by extraordinary taxing and military service, and those who have nu merous families of children to be countenance and encouraged by such laws, as the jus trium liberorum [a law granting privileges for families with three or more children]
|
From page 123... ...
No letters from Halley to his wife during his voyages survive, but she was likely on his mind from time to time. During dinner and what is called "Saturday night at sea," in the vernacular, British naval officers toasted their "Sweethearts and Wives." In July 1675, Henry Teonge wrote of the tradition in a Saturday entry of his experiences aboard the HMS Assistance: "We end the day and week with drinking to our wives in punch bowls." Whether Halley married purely for love is doubtful.
|
From page 124... ...
In those days premarital sex or "bundling," that is, heavy petting, was commonplace and part of many courtships. Clandestine marriages, replete with sketchy paperwork, were also available to the lower classes, however, in dozens of small marriage houses off the maze of alleys at the base of Ludgate Hill near Fleet Bridge.
|
From page 125... ...
, and it become almost dangerous for any one to leave a fortune to the disposal of the person that was to enjoy it and when it was so left, the young lady went always in danger of her life." The practice wouldn't be outlawed until 1753 by the Marriage Act, more than a decade after Halley's death. Halley probably thought of his family often during his bedridden days battling typhoid.
|
From page 126... ...
Up the Newfoundland coast, the Paramore made the Isle of Sphere (modern Cape Spear) , which Halley's men dubbed the "Isle of Despair." Approaching nearby Toad's Cove, they encountered a small armada of English fishermen.At first sight of the Paramore, the fleet headed downwind -- a common evasive maneuver.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.