I have been thinking that it might be fun to take interesting tidbits from some of the books I've read recently and post them. I don't want to write book reviews; rather, just note a few of the things that caught my attention. (I have an ulterior motive--to aid in my memory.) I'm starting with a book I just finished today: The Invention of Air, by Steven Johnson. It's a terrific book about Joseph Priestly, one of the seminal thinkers of the late 18th and early 19th century and a leading scientist of the Enlightenment.
- Ben Franklin (a great friend and mentor to Priestly) was the first to map the path of the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic, which was very beneficial to the shipping industry in accelerating the east-bound transatlantic voyages.
- In the 18th century, science was referred to as "natural philosophy."
- Franklin was really a significant figure in the early development of the science of electricity. I'd always thought he was just a dabbler, and that his kite experiment was on the fringe of the science. Actually, Franklin coined the terms "charged," "battery" and "conductor."
- In the early days of electricity in the mid-1700's the primary application was parlor tricks. Here's a drawing of a boy hanging from a silk rope that transfers static electricity to a young girl by touch. Volunteers would be called from the audience to experience the voltage first-hand. Those that practiced this magic for entertainment were known as ... electricians.
- Samuel Boswell, speaking wryly on politicians: "I said that, as it seemed to be agreed that all members of Parliament became corrupted, it was better to chuse (sic) men that were already bad, and so save good men."
- European men in the 18th century were two inches shorter than in the 21st century. Five-foot-eight-inches was considered tall.
- Marx correctly identified three new macro processes that would drive change in the coming centuries: Class struggle, the evolution of capital and technological innovation.
- Most great inventors in history have been blessed with the gift of leisure time.
- Priestly was the first to make carbonated beverages, but incorrectly believed drinking them would prevent scurvy.
- As Johnson has written elsewhere, the emergence of coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries played a major role in the development of thought and innovation. One reason was that coffeehouses became hubs of cross-disciplinary interaction. Another was that, prior to the introduction of coffee into Europe, the most popular beverages were beer and wine, because the fermentation made them a much safer drink than water. It was not unusual for men to drink beer for breakfast and throughout the day. As most college students can attest, caffeine is a more effective intellectual catalyst than beer.
- One of the highly debated areas of 18th-century science was why things burned up. One popular (but famously incorrect) theory was that all things that could burn contained a substance call phlogiston, which was used up in the burning process.
- Giantism was a defining characteristic of the Carboniferous Age, between 350 million and 300 million years ago, before the earliest dinosaurs. The fossil record reveals giant dragonflies, ferns the size of oak trees, flies as big as birds and 50-foot tall grasses. By 250 million B.C. the scale of things was restored to what we see on Earth today. This phenomenon was the result of an unusually high level of oxygen in the air--35% vs. the current 20%.
- One of the keys to the eventual success of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War was Franklin negotiating the purchase of 200 tons of a superior French gunpowder, which gave the Americans a superior firing range vs. the British.
- Priestly's book "History of the Corruptions of Christianity" got him chased out of England. A Unitarian minister, Priestly believed that the magic and mysticism of Christianity, including the concept of the Trinity, were all added long after Christ had died. His view was highly controversial and incendiary, but was embraced by his good friend Thomas Jefferson, as it reconciled science with a new form of Christianity. Jefferson once wrote "I am a sect by myself, as far as I know."
- Priestly was the first scientist who sought exile in America. He settled in North Central Pennsylvania, not far from Williamsport.
- The early definitions of the term "innovation" were essentially negative, i.e. a new development that threatened the existing order in a detrimental way.
- Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4, 1926, 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
