Volume 1 of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is now available on Project Gutenberg and makes for fascinating reading. "For Anno 1665, and 1666," it contains such maritime treasures as "An Appendix to the Directions for Seamen, bound for far Voyages," (from which the image at left was taken), "Of the New American Whale-fishing about the Bermudas," and "Certain Problems touching some Points of Navigation."There are also discussions related to the making of telescopes and barometers, as well as articles related to the discovery of a "permanent Spott" on Jupiter, such as this one from the issue for "Munday, March 6. 1664/5:"
A Spot in one of the Belts of Jupiter.
The Ingenious Mr. Hook did, some moneths since, intimate to a friend of his, that he had, with an excellent twelve foot Telescope, observed, some days before, he than spoke of it, (videl. on the ninth of May, 1664, about 9 of the clock at night) a small Spot in the biggest of the 3 obscurer Belts of Jupiter, and that, observing it from time to time, he found, that within 2 hours after, the said Spot had moved from East to West, about half the length of the Diameter of Jupiter.
The Ingenious Mr. Hook indeed.
2 comments:
Interesting link, thanks!
I've been following Samuel Pepys as he writes his daily diary entries. http://www.pepysdiary.com/ He was associated with the Royal Navy in these years, and while his diary isn't completely nautical in it's aspect, he does have some very historic entries occasionally.
Thank you for mentioning the Pepys' diary site, Buck--it's fantastic! The annotations alone make it worth a visit.
Post a Comment