Scientific Studies

Part 1

Transcriber's Notes

Changes to the text (corrections to typographical errors) are listed at the end of the book.

On page 45, in the reference "Beccheri's Physica Subterranea, Lipsiæ, 1738 (with supplement), 8vo., 1681-80;", no satisfactory explanation of "1681-80" has been found. Note that the publication date of Physica Subterranea is 1669.

In Figure 2 on page 82, the following denote the conventional symbols for planetary bodies: , , [Mercury], [Venus], , [Jupiter], [Saturn], [Uranus].

On pages 83 & 84 in the explanation of Plate III, a single quote is used to denote the decimal point: this convention has been retained.

In this Plain Text version of the e-book, the Latin-1 character set only is used. Italic typeface is denoted by surrounding underscores; small caps typeface is denoted by ALL CAPS; superscript symbols are preceded by caret (^).

represents the oe-ligature.

* * * * *

EDWARD SOMERSET, SIXTH EARL AND SECOND MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.

From a Bust by Mr. James Loft, Sculptor, exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1867; and now in the Sculpture Gallery of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham.

SCIENTIFIC STUDIES:

PRACTICAL, IN CONTRAST WITH CHIMERICAL PURSUITS;

EXEMPLIFIED IN TWO POPULAR LECTURES.

THE LIFE OF EDWARD SOMERSET, SECOND MARQUIS OF WORCESTER, INVENTOR OF THE STEAM ENGINE.

II.

CHIMERAS OF SCIENCE: ASTROLOGY, ALCHEMY, SQUARING THE CIRCLE, PERPETUUM MOBILE, ETC.

With Illustrative Diagrams.

HENRY DIRCKS, C. E., LL.D., F.C.S., M.R.S.L., F.R.S.R., &c. &c.

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER;" "WORCESTERIANA;" &c.

LONDON: E. & F. N. SPON, 48, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1879.

INTRODUCTION.

It forms a necessary part of popular lectures that they should possess breadth with brevity, and interest without too great profundity. It is possible to see a large extent of country from a lofty tower without being cognizant of every blade of grass, the perfume of blossoms, or the notes of the sweetest songsters of the groves. In like manner the popular lecturer has to present only so much to the eye of the mind as will give the prominent features of his theme, omitting those details over which the scholar, or the true lover of his subject, dwells with the affection of a fond parent over a darling child.

We must look with astonishment at a man of noble birth, who in a period of civil commotion, with a monarch for his friend, and a court at his command, secluded himself during his youth in a stately ancient tower, engaged in abstruse studies and wonderful mechanical operations; and who, late in life, amidst the terrors of civil war was found turning his inventive faculties, like another Archimedes, to the construction of means of defence, and terrible weapons of offence. But it is only those who become immersed in studies, whether of theology, philosophy, or kindred mental pursuits, who can appreciate the growing appetite for what appears to unlettered men as the driest of all dry occupations. The mere pleasure-seeker knows not how much is lost, and how little is gained by sharing the most brilliant gaieties of fashionable life.

Look at the ancient astrologers, whose pursuits were once as pure and noble as those of modern astronomers. Amidst wild theories, superstitious beliefs, empirical systems, and pagan divination, a rupture became inevitable: one side adopted stellary divination or Astrology, the other Astronomy, or the simple and true study of the stars.

Whatever a man's intellectual pursuits may be, he has the advantage over the mere man of fashion of being engaged in employments which the longest life cannot exhaust.

But intellectual pursuits partake either of the negative or the positive; they are useful or useless, and when useless they fritter away and render nugatory the talent that might have been better employed.

The Marquis of Worcester affords an eminent example of genius of a high order, grandly and effectively directed towards the advancement of man's political and social position. His contemporary, Dr. John Dee, the Astrologer, together with his friend Kelly, the Alchemist, may be appropriately distinguished as representing a class chimerically inclined, and hurtful to the well-being of society; while a less eminent and less blameable section of chimerical labourers are those of whom the worst we can say is, that they waste much valuable time, energy, and fortune, through attaching themselves to mathematics, mechanics, and other learned pursuits, only in search of marvellous, instead of useful applications.

All chimeras are built on assumptions, and so far are "castles in the air;" in many forms they are simply ridiculous; but when they pretend to the supernatural they are pernicious and often wicked.

Part 2

In the two lectures now presented for his perusal, the reader will find both these topics illustrated by suitable lives and authentic evidence.

H. D.

London, February, 1869.

Lecture ON THE LIFE OF EDWARD SOMERSET, SECOND MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.

"He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again."

DELIVERED AT THE LITERARY INSTITUTION, GREENWICH, 16TH FEBRUARY, 1864.

LECTURE I.

The Biographer of Edward, second MARQUIS OF WORCESTER, naturally finds some difficulty in rendering prominent the political position that nobleman enjoyed in the 17th century; or of impressing the minds of his hearers or readers with a just sense of the wonderful genius of the author of the "Century of Inventions," even although the fact be established of that remarkable man being also the true and first inventor of a veritable steam engine.

When we consider the eventful period in which he lived, (from 1601 to 1667,) and his personal character, together with the social, political, and romantic incidents of his life, the career of the Marquis of Worcester cannot fail to interest and instruct us. He was at once the most fortunate and unfortunate of men, living in times of mingled enlightenment, superstition, and civil discord, and finally finding himself cast on the tender mercies of a corrupt Court; the possessor of a high order of mechanical genius, yet proscribed politically and theologically; most loyal, yet falling the victim of puritanism; and closing his life neglected by a Sovereign whose father had been the chief ruin of his patrimony.

Descended from the Plantagenets, Edward Somerset, second MARQUIS OF WORCESTER, is supposed to have been born about, or soon after 1601, the records to establish his natal year being wanting. His father, Henry Somerset, created first Marquis of Worcester by Charles I., was married on the 16th June, 1600, at Blackfriars; Queen Elizabeth, attending in great state, graciously danced at the wedding ball; and the festivities of the occasion were continued for three days.

We obtain little information respecting the Marquis of Worcester until about the twenty-seventh year of his age, when he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Dormer, eldest son of Lord Dormer of Weng, and sister of Robert, Earl of Carnarvon. It is not known where he was educated, but it was certainly neither at Oxford nor Cambridge. Mention is made of his preceptor, Mr. Adams, at Raglan Castle, the baronial seat of the lords of Raglan, in Monmouthshire. There is every probability, however, that he finished his education at some foreign university. His son and heir, Henry, born in 1629, was created by Charles II. the first Duke of Beaufort, and from him the present Duke of Beaufort is the eighth of that rank in lineal descent.

It was during the first or second year of his married life that he engaged the services of Caspar Kaltoff, whom he employed as a practical assistant, to work out his numerous mechanical experiments, and whom he extols as an "unparalleled workman, both for trust and skill." There are still to be seen on one side of the Keep--or citadel of Raglan Castle, the remains of grooves in the wall, probably for the insertion of large metal pipes, in some way or other connected with the waterworks which are known to have been erected there, and which were most likely carried out by Kaltoff, under his master's directions.

Dedication to "The Century of Inventions."

Becoming a widower in 1635, his lordship married in 1639, his second wife, Margaret, second daughter and co-heir of Henry O'Brien, Earl of Thomond.

It must have been about this period of his life that the Marquis of Worcester made one of his most singular and perplexing mechanical experiments, which he exhibited at the Tower before Charles I., several of his Court, some foreign ambassadors, and the lieutenant of that fortress. As he names Sir William Balfour (who held the latter appointment from 1630 to 1641) we can arrive at an approximate date. The mechanical surprise which he states he thus presented to gratify his royal master, was no other than a gigantic wheel, 14 feet in diameter, weighted with 40 weights of 50 lbs. each, equal to 2000 lbs., by means of which we are left to infer that the wheel maintained a rotatory motion, without assistance from any external aid whatever; that it was in fact, a realization of that long sought for curiosity--perpetual motion. As he wrote deliberately a statement of this circumstance fifteen years later, or more, which he afterwards printed, we are left without any grounds to suppose otherwise than that he deceived himself, or was deceived, from interested motives, by persons in his employment. The circumstance is scarcely worth notice except as a singular proof that such a hallucination could exist in the mind of the same genius that perfected the first practical steam-engine. We can only say that if the mystery could be cleared up, although it would be of little or no value to mathematics or mechanics, it would go far to elevate the scientific character of the Marquis, though he was not the only celebrity of his time infatuated with a thorough belief in the possibility of solving the paradox.

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