Part 73

From his observation that an object sliding along a plane travels increasingly farther and slows down at a decreasing rate as the surfaces become smoother and more lubricated, he opined that the natural state of a body in motion is to stay in motion, and that it is slowed down by a resistant force (“friction”). He conceived of the air giving a frictional force to an object moving through the air. >From his experiments showing that a rolling ball rolls up a plane farther the lesser the slope of the plane, he intuited that if the plane were horizontal, the ball would never stop rolling except for friction. He opined that bodies that are at rest stay at rest and bodies that are in motion stay in uniform motion (“inertia”), unless and until acted upon by some force. This was a radical departure from Aristotle's theory that any horizontal motion requires a prime mover. Galileo drew a graph of distance versus time for the rolling ball, which indicated that the distance traveled was proportional to the square of the time elapsed.

He put his ideas of vertical and horizontal motion together to explain the movement of projectiles, which travel horizontally, but also fall downward vertically. He realized that the movement of a projectile involved a horizontal impetus of projection and a vertical force of gravity, each being independent of the other, but acting simultaneously, instead of sequentially. He demonstrated that a projectile follows the path of a parabola, instead of a straight line, and that it descends a vertical distance which is proportional to the square of the time taken to fall. That is, a thrown object will strike the ground in the same amount of time as an object simply dropped from the same height. This suggested that gravity was a constant force.

Galilieo described mathematically the motion of a lever such as a seesaw in which the weight on one side multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum is equal to the weight on the other side multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum.

Galileo determined that a pendulum, such as a hanging lamp, swings back and forth in equal intervals of time. He measured this time with water running through a tube; the weight of the water was proportional to the time elapsed. Also, pendulums with equal cord length swing at the same rate, regardless of the substance, weight, or shape of the material at the end. So a pendulum could be a mechanical clock.

Galileo knew that ice floated on water because ice is less dense and therefore lighter than water. It had formerly been thought that ice was heavier than water, but floated on water because of its shape, especially broad, flat-bottomed pieces of ice.

The telescope was invented in 1608. The next year, Galileo built a greatly improved telescope to observe bodies in the skies. He observed that the spots on the moon had shifting illumination and that the moon's perimeter had a jagged outline. From this he deduced that the surface of the moon had mountains, valleys, and craters much like the earth, and was illuminated by reflected light. He noticed that the planet Jupiter had moons orbiting it in a manner similar to the orbit of the Earth's moon. He observed that when the planet Venus was very small it had a round shape and when it was very large (and therefore nearer the earth), it had a crescent shape. Also, Venus progressed through periodic phases of increasingly wide crescent shapes in a manner similar to the phases of crescent shapes of the Earth's moon. He realized that these features of Venus could be explained only if Venus revolved around the sun, rather than around the earth. This finding added credence to the Copernican theory that the earth and all planets revolve around the sun. But church doctrine that the sun revolved around the earth was supported by the Biblical story of God making the sun stand still to give additional sunlight on a certain day so a certain task could be completed that day. Galileo argued against a literal interpretation of the Bible, so he was denounced by the church. His finding of sunspots on the sun conflicted with church doctrine that the celestial bodies such as the sun were perfect and unblemished. His observation that certain sun spots were on certain locations of the sun, but changed location over time, suggested that the sun might be rotating. He observed that when air was withdrawn by a suction pump from the top of a long glass tube whose lower open end was submerged in a pan of water, the water rose to a height of 34 feet and no higher. This result indicated that the evacuated space above the water was a vacuum: an empty space. The notion of a vacuum, a space where there is nothing or void, was difficult for philosophers to accept. They believed that nature abhored a vacuum and would prevent it. About 1600, Galileo invented the first thermometer by heating air at the top of a tube whose open end was in a bowl of water; as the top end cooled, the air contracted and water rose part way up the tube; the column of water rose or fell with every change of temperature. Galileo invented the compound refracting microscope, which used more than one lens, about 1612.

Galileo's book on the arguments for and against the Copernican theory was unexpectedly popular when published in 1632. The general public was so persuaded by the arguments that the earth revolved around the sun that Papal authority felt threatened. So Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy and sentenced to prison as an example to others who might question church doctrine, even though the seventy year old Galileo recanted and some of the inquisition judges who convicted him believed the Copernican theory and their decision did not assert the contrary.

John Napier, a large Calvinist landholder in Scotland who had built his own castle, did mathematics in his older years. He explored imaginary numbers, which involve square roots of negative numbers. By 1614, he had started and developed the theory of logarithms: the relationships among positive and negative exponents of numbers. This simplified calculations because the multiplication and division of numbers with a common base could be done by addition and subtraction of their exponents. His table of logarithms, which took him twenty years to compile, was used in trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy. It reduced the enormous labor involved in trigonometric calculations. In 1622, Willliam Oughtred invented the slide rule for calculations.

Johannes Kepler was a mathematician from Germany who made his living as an astrologer. He was in contact with Galileo by letter, as most scientists of Europe were with each other. Kepler was fascinated with perfect geometric shapes, which he tried to relate to celestial phenomenon. He discerned that the orbit of Mars was not perfectly circular. He knew that the apparent path of the sun with respect to the constellation of fixed stars differed in speed at different times of the year. He opined that this showed that the speed of the earth revolving around the sun varied according to the time of year. Then he measured the angles between the earth and the sun and the earth and Mars as they changed through the Martian year. He noted when the earth, Mars, and the Sun were on the same straight line. Then he deduced the earth's true orbit, and from this the true orbits of the other planets. Then by trial and error, he attempted to match this empirical data with regular mathematically defined shapes, until he discovered in 1609 that these paths were elliptical. Also, the planets each move faster when they are nearer the sun and more slowly when they are farther from the sun so that in equal time intervals, a line from the planet to the sun will sweep out equal areas. This observation led him to opine that there is a force between the sun and each planet, and that this force is the same as that which keeps the moon in its orbit around the earth. Thirdly, in 1619, he found that the square of the time for each planet's orbit about the sun is proportional to the cube of that planet's mean distance from the sun, so that the farther planets orbit at a slower speed. He connected the earth's tides with the gravitational pull of the moon. Kepler also confirmed that the paths of comets were governed by a law and were farther from the earth than the moon. This contradicted the church's explanation that what lies within the moon's orbit pertains to the earth and is essentially transitory and evil, while what lies beyond belongs to the heavens and is permanent and pure.

Renee Descartes, a French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher, had a revelation that the structure of the universe was mathematical and that nature obeyed mathematical rules. In 1637, he invented analytic [Cartesian] geometry, in which lines and geometric shapes can be described by algebraic equations and vice-versa. All conic sections: circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas, could be represented by equations with two unknowns, or variables, on a coordinate system in which each point is represented by a pair of numbers representing distances from the two axis lines. An algebraic equation with two unknowns, could be represented as a shape thereon. An algebraic equation with one unknown represented a straight line thereon. The points of intersection geometrically was equivalent to the common solution of the associated algebraic equations. He started the convention of representing unknown quantities by x, y, and z and known quantities by a, b, and c. So, for instance, a circle with center at point 2,3 and a radius of 4 was represented by the equation: (x-2) squared + (y-3) squared = 4. He pioneered the standard exponential notation for cubes and higher powers of numbers. Analytic geometry aided in making good lenses for eyeglasses. The glass was first manufactured with attention to quality. Then, after it cooled and solidified, the clearest pieces were picked and their surfaces ground into the proper curvature.

Descartes formulated the law of refraction of light, which deduces the angle of refraction [deflection] of light through a medium from the lights' angle of incidence and the speed of light in each media in which the light passes. This explained why a rainbow is circular. In 1644, he described the universe in terms of matter and motion and suggested that there were universal laws and an evolutionary explanation for such. He opined that all effects in nature could be explained by spatial extension and motion laws that 1) each part of matter retains the shape, size, motion, or rest unless collision with another part occurs; 2) one part of matter can only gain as much motion through collision as is lost by the part colliding with it; and 3) motion tends to be in a straight line. Descartes feared persecution by the church because his ideas did not correlate with the Biblical notion of God's creation of the universe in the order of light, then sky and oceans and dry land, then plants, then seasons and the sun and moon and stars, then fish and birds, then all animals, and finally man. Descartes believed in a good and perfect God, and thought of the world as divided into matter and spirit. The human mind was spirit and could exist outside the human body. Without the mind, human body was a machine. The human mind had knowledge without sense experience, e.g. the truths of mathematics and physics. Ideas and imagination were innate. His observation that sensory appearances are often misleading, such as in dreams or hallucinations, led him to the conclusion that he could only conclude that: "I think, therefore I am." He rejected the doctrine that things had a proper behavior according to their natures, e.g. the nature of acorns is to develop into oak trees. As an example of erroneous forming of conceptions of substance with our senses alone, he pointed out that honeycomb has a certain taste, scent, and texture, but if exposed to fire, it loses all these forms and assumes others. He considered to be erroneous the belief that there are no bodies around us except those perceivable by our senses. He was a strong proponent of the deductive method of finding truths, e.g. arguing logically from a very few self- evident principles, known by intuition, to determine the nature of the universe.

Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist, used the melting and the boiling point of water as fixed points in a scale of measurements, which first gave definiteness to thermometric tests.

There was much mining of coal, tin, copper, lead, and iron in the 1600s. Coal was transported from the coal pits down to the rivers to be loaded onto ships on coal wagons riding on wooden rails. The full coal cars could then be sent down by gravity and the empty wagons pulled up by horses. Sheet metal, e.g. lead, was used for roofing. Coal was much used for heating houses, and for laundry, cooking, and industrial use, such as extraction of salt, soap boilers, and manufacture of glass, bricks and tiles for buildings, anchors for ships, and tobacco pipes. It was used in the trades: bakers, confectioners, brewers, dyers, sugar refiners, coopers, starch makers, copper workers, alum makers, and iron workers.

In 1604 the Haberdashers, who sold imported felt for hats, got a charter of incorporation.

A tapestry factory was established in 1619.

Flax-working machines came into existence.

As Attorney General, Edward Coke was impassioned and melodramatic. He once described the parts of the penalty of treason as follows: being drawn to the place of execution reflected the person's not being worthy any more to tread upon the face of the earth; being drawn backward at a horse tail was due to his retrograde nature; being drawn head downward on the ground indicated that he was unfit to breathe the common air; being hanged by the neck between heaven and earth indicated that he was unworthy of either; being cut down alive and his privy parts cut off and burnt before his face indicated he was unworthily begotten and unfit to leave any generation after him; having his bowels and inners taken out and burnt indicated he had inwardly conceived and harbored such horrible treason; his head cut off, which had imagined the treason, and his body to be quartered and the quarters set up to the view and detestation of men a prey for the fowls of the air. Coke was subsequently elevated to the position of Chief of Common Pleas and then to Chief of the King's Bench. But there Coke propounded a doctrine of the supremacy of the law over the king as well as over Parliament. For instance, Coke would not agree to stay any case in which the king had a concern in power or profit, to consult with him. But the other eleven justices did agree. Since James I believed in the divine right of kings, he therefore dismissed Coke from his position as Chief Justice of the King's Bench. James even believed that he could suspend any law for reasons known only to him and issue proclamations that were not limited to the reinforcement of old laws, but made new offenses with punishment of fine and/or imprisonment.

Coke then became a member of Parliament and led the Commons, where he exalted the authority of Parliament vis a vis the king; that is, the king could not make any changes in law, religion, or taxation without consent of Parliament. James arrested Coke and two other members of the Commons and put its leader John Pym under house arrest for their outspoken opinions against the King's intended alliance with Catholic Spain and intended taking of a Spanish wife. Because of the deadlock that developed between the king and Parliament, certain matters could not be addressed by legislation and were left to be decided judicially. This made judicial review of disputes important.

James vastly increased the number of peerages, selling many, for example for 10,000 pounds. Since there was a tacit understanding that members of Parliament would not accept remuneration, this restricted eligibility for membership to the rich. The House of Commons was composed mostly of attorneys, merchants from the large towns, and country gentlemen. The gentry members had 600 pounds [12,000s] annual income from land and the burgess members had 300 pounds [6,000s.] In addition to the two knights from every county (elected by men holding at least forty-shilling freeholds), four representatives from London, and one or two from every other borough (generally elected by the top business families), there was a representative from each of the two universities. For Speaker, they always chose someone suggested to them by the Crown. He decided who would talk and could hasten or delay bills, usually for the benefit of the Crown. The Clerk, a lifetime appointment of the Crown, wrote out the bills and their amendments and kept track of proceedings. Many in the Commons were Puritan in sympathy. In 1607, the House of Commons developed a committee system to avoid being presided over by the royally designated speaker. A committee could consist of all the members of the House of Commons with an elected chairman. An increasing number of issues were discussed in committee before coming to the Commons and the Commons came to ratify readily what had been done in committee.

By 1610, there had developed in the House of Commons an opposition to feudal tenures, purveyance, wardships, and impositions (special import and export duties on aliens set by the king without the consent of Parliament that were supposed to be for the purpose of regulating trade instead of for revenue). There was also a call for free speech and an end to the King's habit at the end of Parliament of imprisoning for a time those who had been too outspoken. The Commons also asserted itself into foreign affairs by expressing an opinion against a treaty proposed by the king on which war could ensue. The treaty was abandoned. In London, organized groups such as the apothecaries, the skinners, and the grocers, were circulating printed statements of their cases to members of committees of the House of Commons rather than just seeking out a friendly Privy Council member. In 1621, the protests made to committeemen about monopolies sold by James frightened him into canceling many of them. He had made many grants against competition in violation of law. The right of the Commons to expel a member was asserted by the expulsion of a monopolist. By 1629, the speeches of prominent members and the course of proceedings were copied by stationers and sold in a weekly news report.

The King's Privy Council dealt constantly with foreign affairs, and also with the great companies, and problems arising such as gold leaving the country, the Dutch ships increased efficiency in transporting goods, the declining market for English cloth, strikes in the mining industry, decaying harbor works, the quality of food and drink, the wrongs done to the poor, and above all, the general peace and order. They formed commissions to study situations and sent orders to Justices of the Peace on methods to address certain problems and to Sheriffs to carry out certain acts. About 1618, a group within the Privy Council began to concentrate on foreign affairs, especially "cabinet counsels", that is, with secret matters. James sold high offices of state to supplement his income. His income from customs had increased so much that it was now three times that from Crown lands.

The Sheriff looked after Crown lands and revenues in his county. He gathered the rents, the annuities, the stray animals, the deodands, the fees due to the King, the goods of felons and traitors. He was still a means of communication between the Privy Council and the county. He announced new statutes of Parliament and proclamations by the king at the county courts and in the markets. He used posse comitatus to disperse riots. He was the functionary of the assize court, impaneling its juries, bringing accused men before it, and carrying out its penalties. He carried out elections of members of the House of Commons.

There were two high constables for each hundred. They were chosen by the Justices of the Peace at quarter sessions, and were usually small gentry or well-to-do yeomen. They were the intermediaries between the justices and the petty constables. The petty constable was the executive official of the village. He was usually elected by the suitors to the leet court of the manor for a year. He might be a farmer, an artisan, a carpenter, a shoemaker, or many times a tradesman, a butcher, or baker. He often visited the alehouse to learn of any trouble in the making. He would intervene in quarrels and riots and tell the participants to desist in the King's name. If they didn't, he could call on all bystanders to help him "force a quiet". He had to lead the rioters and causers of injuries to others, hold them there until he could bring him before the nearest justice. He would inform the justice of plots to trespass or forcibly enter land to take possession. He saw to it that no new cottages were built in the villages without due authority. He supervised markets and inns. He reported lapses of care for apprentices by their masters to the justice. At harvest time, he called upon all able bodied persons to assist and punished those who didn't respond by putting them in the stocks or fining them forty shillings. He arrested and whipped vagrants and sturdy rogues and sent them back to their place of birth through constables on the way. If a horse was stolen, he raised the hue and cry to all neighboring constables. He made inquiry into the paternity of the coming child of an unmarried pregnant girl to make him take responsibility for the child and pay her 8d. a week lest it fall into the responsibility of the village. In a town, he might have watchmen to help him see that the streets were peaceful at night. The constable assisted the Justice of the Peace, the high constable, and the Sheriff. He pressed men into military service. He collected taxes for the Sheriff and collected the money for purveyance, the money for the poor, maimed soldiers, and various kinds of prisoners, which the parish had to pay. He was often the spokesman for the village in village concerns, such as too many alehouses, brought to the attention of justices at quarter sessions. The constable and churchwardens together collected money for the parish, looked after the needy, and kept in close touch with the overseers of the poor, who cared for the sick and old, found work for the idle, took charge of bastards, apprenticed orphan children, and provided supplies for the workhouse.

In 1609 the East India Company was given a monopoly by the Crown that was indefinitely long as long as it was profitable to the realm in the King's opinion. Interlopers were to forfeit their ships and goods, one-half to the Company and one-half to the Crown. Monopoly status made the Company competitive with the Dutch and Portuguese monopoly companies. The Crown received a gift or a loan from the Company in return. At first, the Company raised capital for each separate voyage. But voyages tried to undercut each other and rival factions squabbled over cargoes. So the company then raised a "terminable joint-stock" for a period of years. The first of these was issued in 1613-16 and financed a fleet every year for four years. Subscriptions were called in by yearly installments and dividends paid out yearly. The voyage of 1613 brought shareholders a profit equivalent to about 11% a year. By 1620, the Company operated thirty to forty "tall ships", many built in its own dockyards. These dockyards were so technologically advanced that they were daily viewed by visitors and ambassadors. Here, besides wet and dry docks, there were timber yards, a foundry and cordage works for supplying the ships' hardware and a bakery and saltings for their provisioning. More than 200 craftsmen were directly employed in the yard. Overall the company was one of London' largest employers.

In 1606, the first charter of the Virginia Company was issued for trading purposes. It gave the settlers "all liberties, franchises, and immunities" they had in England. To oversee this colony, the Crown appointed a council. Virginia established the Episcopal Church by law. Virginia became a joint-stock company in 1609. But exports were few (timber, soap ashes, pitch, tar, and dyes) for several years, and then tobacco emerged as a source of profit. King James imposed a heavy duties on imported tobacco because it corrupted man's breath with a stinking smoke.

In 1607, the Muscovy Company, hired Henry Hudson to find a northwest passage through North America to the Pacific Ocean.

Life was difficult for Puritan Separatists, who wanted to separate from the established church. They were imprisoned and their houses were watched day and night for illegal meetings. In 1620, after trying Holland and when there was a depression in England, a few Puritan Separatists, along with other pilgrims, left for Virginia in the Mayflower, but landed in New England and founded Plymouth Colony. They were led by William Bradford and William Brewster, their spiritual leader. They planted fields and made friends with the Indians. In 1621, they secured a patent to the merchants and planters together for a voluntary joint-stock company in New England. Later, it became the self-governing Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The canons of the church of 1604 provided for excommunication for anyone who propounded that the king did not have the same authority in ecclesiastical matters as the godly kings among the Jews and Christian emperors in the primitive church, that the Church of England was not a true and apostolic church, that worship according the Book of Common prayer and administration of sacraments was corrupt or superstitious, or that other methods of the church were wicked, unchristian, or superstitious.