The ‘dry’ formulas from science books are depended on for a large portion of our existence, and while we may stand in awe at their deeper meaning and even enjoy some lab experiments, they don’t always reveal the full and complete depth of what the scientists went through. The endeavors are ever insightful, often amazing, and some even approach the ridiculous. Some of the scientific pioneers really had it rough. Scientists, like those of any discipline, can be doggedly eccentric in their quests. Sometimes the perseverance paid off and other times it really flopped.
Halley, Newton and Hooke
Halley was a sea captain, a cartographer, a professor
Of geometry, a deputy of the Royal Mint, an astronomer,
And the inventor of the deep-sea diving bell, and wrote some
On magnetism, tides, planet motions, and fondly on opium.
He invented the weather map and actuarial table ages,
Even proposed methods to work out the Earth’s old age
And its distance from the sun, even how to keep fresh fish,
But one thing he didn’t do was to discover Halley’ comet,
For he merely noted that it was yet another return of it.
He made a wager with Robert Hooke, the cell describer,
And with the great and stately Christopher Wren:
They bet upon why the planets’ orbit were ellipses.
Hooke, a known credit-taker, claimed he’d solved the problem,
But had to conceal it so that others could yet have satisfaction.
Well, Halley became consumed with finding the answer,
So he called upon the Lucasian Mathematics Professor.
Issac Newton was indeed brilliant beyond measure,
But was solitary, joyless, paranoid, and ever no pleasure.
Once he had inserted a needle in his eye and poked around,
Far inserting the leather bodkin between the eye and the bone.
Another time, he'd stared at the sun for so very long
That he had to spend many days in a darkened room.
Frustrated by mathematics, Isaac invented the calculus,
And then for twenty-seven years kept it hidden from us.
Likewise, he did the same with the understanding of light
And spectroscopy, keeping it for thirty years in the dark.
For Newton, science was but a partial part of his life’s routes,
For much time was given to alchemy and religious pursuits.
He was wholeheartedly devoted to the religion of Arianism,
Whose main tenet was that there could be no Holy Trinity.
Ironically, he worked as a Professor at Trinity College,
Although the only one there who was not Anglican.
He also spent an inordinate amount of time studying
The floor plan of the lost temple of Solomon the King,
Even learning Hebrew, the better to scan the original texts.
Another single minded quest of his was to turn base metals
Into precious ones, his papers revealing this preoccupation
Over optics and planetary motions and such mentations.
Well, Halley asked Newton what the curve would be
If the planets’ attraction toward the sun was supposed to be
The reciprocal to the square of their distance from it.
Newton promptly answered, of course, an “ellipse”.
Not finding his calculations of it, Newton not only rewrote it,
But retired for two years to produce his master work,
The Plilosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
To Halley’s horror, Newton refused to release the crucial third volume,
Without which the first two would make little sense.
There had been a dispute between Newton and Hooke
Over the priority of the inverse square law in the book.
That solved by Halley’s diplomacy, the Royal Society
Had pulled out from the publication, failing financially,
For, the year before, there had been a very costly flop
Called 'The History of Fishes'; so, Halley himself popped
The funds for Netwon’s publication out of his own pocket.
Newton contributed nothing, as usual, and, to make matters worse,
Halley had just taken a position as the society’s clerk,
They failing to pay the promised 50 pounds to his purse,
Paying him only with very many copies of 'The History of Fishes'!
Halley, Newton and Hooke
Halley was a sea captain, a cartographer, a professor
Of geometry, a deputy of the Royal Mint, an astronomer,
And the inventor of the deep-sea diving bell, and wrote some
On magnetism, tides, planet motions, and fondly on opium.
He invented the weather map and actuarial table ages,
Even proposed methods to work out the Earth’s old age
And its distance from the sun, even how to keep fresh fish,
But one thing he didn’t do was to discover Halley’ comet,
For he merely noted that it was yet another return of it.
He made a wager with Robert Hooke, the cell describer,
And with the great and stately Christopher Wren:
They bet upon why the planets’ orbit were ellipses.
Hooke, a known credit-taker, claimed he’d solved the problem,
But had to conceal it so that others could yet have satisfaction.
Well, Halley became consumed with finding the answer,
So he called upon the Lucasian Mathematics Professor.
Issac Newton was indeed brilliant beyond measure,
But was solitary, joyless, paranoid, and ever no pleasure.
Once he had inserted a needle in his eye and poked around,
Far inserting the leather bodkin between the eye and the bone.
Another time, he'd stared at the sun for so very long
That he had to spend many days in a darkened room.
Frustrated by mathematics, Isaac invented the calculus,
And then for twenty-seven years kept it hidden from us.
Likewise, he did the same with the understanding of light
And spectroscopy, keeping it for thirty years in the dark.
For Newton, science was but a partial part of his life’s routes,
For much time was given to alchemy and religious pursuits.
He was wholeheartedly devoted to the religion of Arianism,
Whose main tenet was that there could be no Holy Trinity.
Ironically, he worked as a Professor at Trinity College,
Although the only one there who was not Anglican.
He also spent an inordinate amount of time studying
The floor plan of the lost temple of Solomon the King,
Even learning Hebrew, the better to scan the original texts.
Another single minded quest of his was to turn base metals
Into precious ones, his papers revealing this preoccupation
Over optics and planetary motions and such mentations.
Well, Halley asked Newton what the curve would be
If the planets’ attraction toward the sun was supposed to be
The reciprocal to the square of their distance from it.
Newton promptly answered, of course, an “ellipse”.
Not finding his calculations of it, Newton not only rewrote it,
But retired for two years to produce his master work,
The Plilosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
To Halley’s horror, Newton refused to release the crucial third volume,
Without which the first two would make little sense.
There had been a dispute between Newton and Hooke
Over the priority of the inverse square law in the book.
That solved by Halley’s diplomacy, the Royal Society
Had pulled out from the publication, failing financially,
For, the year before, there had been a very costly flop
Called 'The History of Fishes'; so, Halley himself popped
The funds for Netwon’s publication out of his own pocket.
Newton contributed nothing, as usual, and, to make matters worse,
Halley had just taken a position as the society’s clerk,
They failing to pay the promised 50 pounds to his purse,
Paying him only with very many copies of 'The History of Fishes'!
