Competing to popularize Newtonian philosophy - John Theophilus Desaguliers and the preservation of reputation

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Volumn 94, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 435-455

  Wigelsworth, Jeffrey R ^a  

^a NONE   (Canada)

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EID: 33744983399     PISSN: 00211753     EISSN: 15456994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/380653     Document Type: Article

References (141)

1. On interest in the Principia see Niccolo Guicciardini, Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton's Mathematical Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999);
2. Stephen Snobelen, "On Reading Isaac Newton's Principia in the Eighteenth Century," Endeavour, 1998, 22:159-163;
3. and Rob Iliffe, '"Is He Like Other Men?' The Meaning of Principia Mathematica, and the Author as Idol," in Culture and Society in the Stuart Restoration: Literature, Drama, History, ed. Gerald Maclean (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 159-176.
4. On the phenomenon of public science see Larry Stewart, The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology, and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992);
5. Jan Golinski, Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760-1820 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992);
6. Jan C. C. Rupp, "The New Science and the Public Sphere in the Premodern Era," Science in Context, 1995, 8:487-507;
7. and Thomas Broman, "The Habermasian Public Sphere and 'Science in the Enlightenment,'" History of Science, 1999, 36:123-149.
8. As Adrian Johns has noted, the labels "printer" and "bookseller" were not rigid categories in early modern London: Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 59-60, 137-148. In this essay I use "booksellers" to refer to individuals who sold books, "authors" for the people who composed the content of books, and "printers" for those who turned the written manuscript into the product that was then sold in bookshops. Very often the same people occupied multiple roles in the process of turning a manuscript into a book and then delivering it to market. Moreover, although this article examines a dispute between a lecturer and two booksellers, I do not intend to suggest that a constant opposition between the two groups existed. Experimenters, as we will see, often authored books and had friendships with booksellers, and booksellers often wrote books, The dispute examined here could just as easily have occurred between any of those who sought to make money in the public market for natural philosophy. It is an issue of limited market space - where authors, lecturers, and booksellers all competed with one another - not one of specific professional opposition.
9. Jeremy Black, The English Press, 1621-1861 (Gloucester: Sutton, 2001), pp. 8-9. Aside from those for books in various genres, a typical issue of the Post Boy might include advertisements for forthcoming auctions, innovative medicines, and rewards for the return of lost items such as runaway apprentices and the occasional sword that had been tossed out of a coach. During 1720 much of the space usually reserved for advertisements was taken up by charts of the South Sea Company Stock.
10. Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 355-407.
11. For current work in the history of the book as it relates to natural philosophy see Johns, Nature of the Book (cit. n. 2);
12. Marina Frasca-Spada and Nick Jardine, eds., Books and the Sciences in History (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000);
13. and Peter Galison and Mario Biagioli, eds., Scientific Authorship: Credit and Intellectual Property in Science (New York: Routledge, 2002).
14. Post Boy, 29-31 Dec. 1719 (italics added). In England '"sGravesande" often appeared as "Gravesande" and "Willem Jacob" was anglicized to "William James." His book was originally published in Leiden by Lugdini Batavorum In 1720.
15. On the Interchangeable terms see Margaret J. Osler, "Whose Ends? Teleology in Early Modem Nature Philosophy," Osiris, 2001, 2nd Ser., 16:151-168, on pp. 134, 158;
16. and Andrew Cunningham, "How the Principia Got Its Name: or, Taking Natural Philosophy Seriously," Hist. Sci., 1991, 29:377-392.
17. Mears was a career bookseller who entered the profession after his apprenticeship ended In 1707. He seems to have created a family business: his son, also named William, was apprenticed to his father In 1727. See D. F. McKenzie, ed., Statloners' Company Apprentices, 1701-1800 (Oxford: Bibliographical Society, 1978), pp. 160, 231.
18. This was the first and only experience Desagullers had with Woodward. There Is little information concerning Woodward or his family; indeed, all we know is that he began his apprenticeship in 1705 and finished In 1712. Statloners' Company Apprentices, 1701-1800, Ibid., p. 391.
19. For the circulation figures see James R. Sutherland, "The Circulation of Newspapers and Literary Periodicals, 1700-30," Library, 1935, 15:110-124, on pp. 111, 124.
20. I. Bernard Cohen, Franklin and Newton: An Inquiry Into Speculative Newtonian Experimental Science and Franklin's Work in Electricity as an Example Thereof (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1956), p. 235;
21. A. R. Hall, "Willem Jacob 'sGravesande," in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles C. Gillispie, 18 vols. (New York: Seribners, 1970-1986), Vol. 5, pp. 509-511, on p. 510;
22. Arnold Thackray, Atoms and Powers: An Essay on Newtonian Matter-Theory and the Development of Chemistry (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1970), pp. 101-102;
23. Simon Schaffer, "Machine Philosophy: Demonstration Devices in Georgian Mechanics," Osiris, 1994, 2nd Ser., 9/157-182, on p. 158;
24. and Johns, Nature of the Book (cit. n. 2), p. 181.
25. On Desaguliers see Nicholas J. Wade, "Jean Theophile Desaguliers (1683-1744) and Eighteenth-Century Vision Research," British Journal of Psychology, 2000, 91:275-285, on p. 277.
26. His remark on Keill is quoted in James E. Force, "Some Eminent Newtonians and Providential Geophysics at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century," Earth Science History, 1983, 2:4-10, on p. 7.
27. On his first acquaintance with Newton see Stewart, Rise of Public Science (cit. n. 1 ), p. 120;
28. and Margaret C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheism, Freemasons, and Republicans (London: Allen & Unwin, 1981), p. 122.
29. For his post at the Royal Society see Stephen Pumfrey, "Who Did the Work? Experimental Philosophers and Public Demonstration in Augustan England," British Journal for the History of Science, 1995, 25:131-156, on p. 144.
30. Regarding his lectures see Stephen D. Snobelen, "Selling Experiment: Public Experimental Lecturing in London, 1705-1728" (M.A. thesis, Univ. Victoria, 1995), p. 73;
31. and Stewart, Rise of Public Science, p. 120.
32. For accounts of experiments performed by Desaguliers see Royal Society, Classified Papers, Vol. 18(2), items 3, 8;
33. and Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, 8 July 1714, fol. 8 and passim.
34. On the work for Newton see Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, 29 July 1714, fol. 13;
35. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1716, 29:433-452;
36. and Simon Schaffer, "Glass Works: Newton's Prisms and the Use of Experiment," in The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences, ed. David Gooding, Trevor Pinch, and Schaffer (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989), pp. 94-100.
37. Regarding Desaguliers's election as a fellow see Royal Society, Council Minutes, Vol. 2, fol. 223.
38. On his friendship with Senex see Stewart, Rise of Public Science, pp.27, 150, 173 n 111.
39. Hall, "Willem Jacob 'sGravesande" (cit. n. 7), p. 509;
40. Anne C. van Helden, "Theory and Practice in Air-Pump Construction: The Cooperation between Willem Jacob 'sGravesande and Jan van Musschenbroek," Annals of Science, 1994, 57:477-495, on pp. 447, 480;
41. and Simon Schaffer, "The Show That Never Ends: Perpetual Motion in the Early Eighteenth Century," Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 1995, 28:157-189, on p. 176.
42. Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, 24 Mar. 1714/15, fol. 57
43. (see also Stewart, Rise of Public Science [cit. n. 1], p. 121), 16 Feb. 1715/16, fol. 100 (service to the Royal Society).
44. On election to the society see Hall, "Willem Jacob 'sGravesande," p. 509.
45. For the letter see Willem Jacob 'sGravesande to Isaac Newton, 13/24 June 1718, in A. Rupert Hall, "Further Newton Correspondence," Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 1982, 37:1-34, on p. 26.
46. Nicolas Gauger, La mécanique du feu; ou, L'art d'en augmenter les effets (Amsterdam, 1714);
47. Gauger, Fires Improved: Being a New Method of Building Chimneys, so as to Prevent Their Smoaking: Made English and Improved by J. T. Desaguliers, M.A. F.R.S. (London, 1715). A second edition of this translation appeared in 1736.
48. The quoted advertisement is from Post Man, 4-6 Aug. 1715.
49. For more on translations in the history of science see Scott L. Montgomery, Science in Translation: Movements of Knowledge through Cultures and Time (Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2000);
50. and Maria Tymoczko, "Science in Space and Time: Cultural Refraction and Linguistic Impingement in the Shaping of Science," Isis, 2002, 95:655-657.
51. Books Printed for E. Curll, at Pope's-Head (London, 1735), pp. 11-12 (quotation on p. 12).
52. On Senex's apprenticeship see McKenzie, ed., Stationers' Company Apprentices (cit. n. 6), p. 33.
53. On the books he offered see Post Boy, 13-16 Feb. 1719/20;
54. J. T. Desaguliers, A Course of Experimental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (London, 1734), advertisement appended to the end of the book;
55. and Jacob, Radical Enlightenment (cit. n. 8), p. 126.
56. Regarding Fires Improved and related demonstrations see Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, 3 Nov. 1715, fol. 80, 10 Nov. 1715, fol. 83, 24 Nov. 1715, fol. 86.
57. On the purpose of Town-Talk see Richard Steele to John Hughes, 8 Jan. 1715/16, in The Correspondence of Richard Steele, ed. Rae Blanchard (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1941), p. 109.
58. See also Richard H. Dammers, Richard Steele (Boston: Twayne, 1982), p. 128. In an early effort to promote experimental philosophy, Steele arranged for William Whiston, recently banished from Cambridge, to give astronomical lectures at Button's Coffeehouse in 1713.
59. See William Whiston, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston (London, 1749), pp. 302 -o03.
60. On the Censorium see John Loftis, "Richard Steele's Censorium," Huntington Library Quarterly, 1950, 74:53-62, on p. 43.
61. For the praise of Desaguliers's work see Town-Talk, in a Letter to a Lady in the Country, No. 3, 30 Dec. 1715, in
62. Richard Steele's Periodical Journalism, 1714-16, ed. Blanchard (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959), p. 205.
63. Flying Post, 3-6 Mar. 1716. In 1720 the poet Allan Ramsay advised readers of the Post Man that a collection of his poems printed by Curll was pirated:
64. "I hereby warn the Publick not to be imposed upon by his Spurious and incorrect Editions of them." Post Man, 21 -23 July 1720.
65. On Curll see Johns, Nature of the Book (cit. n. 2), pp. 123, 168;
66. and Ralph Straus, The Unspeakable Curll (1927; rpt., New York: Kelley, 1970).
67. Town-Talk. 27 Jan. 1715/16, pp. 237-238 (quotations from p. 238).
68. Alexander Pope to Steele, 29 Nov. 1712, in The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., in Verse and Prose, ed. William Lisle Bowles, 10 vols. (London, 1806), Vol. 7, p. 286.
69. Larry Stewart, "The Selling of Newton: Science and Technology in Early Eighteenth-Century England," Journal of British Studies, 1986, 25:178-192, on p. 186;
70. Blanchard, ed., Correspondence of Richard Steele (cit. n. 14), p. 218 n 1;
71. and Loftis, "Richard Steele's Censorium" (cit. n. 14), pp. 61-62.
72. On Dawson's dedication to Steele see Johns, Nature of the Book (cit. n. 2), p. 181.
73. For the advertisement see Post Man, 28 Feb.-3 Mar. 1719, 12-14 Mar. 1719.
74. For Pope's views see Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, ed. James Sutherland (London: Methuen, 1943), pp. 111, 152 (Mears appears at bk. 2, 1. 117, and bk. 3, 1. 20).
75. See also Pat Rogers, "Nameless Names: Pope, Curll, and the Use of Anonymity," New Literary History, 2002, 33:233-245;
76. and David Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), pp. 244, 248.
77. J. T. Desaguliers, A System of Experimental Philosophy, Prov'd by Mechanicks (London, 1719), p. A4;
78. and Desaguliers, Course of Experimental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (cit. n. 13), p. C3r.
79. On publishing pirates see Johns, Nature of the Book, pp. 324-379;
80. and John Feather, Publishing, Piracy, and Politics: A Historical Study of Copyright in Britain (London: Monsell, 1995), p. 67.
81. J.T. Desaguliers to John Keill, 30 Dec. 1719. Cambridge University Library, MS O. XIV.278 (Folder 3). fols. Ir, Iv. I am grateful to Stephen Snobelen for a transcription of this manuscript. Unfortunately, Keill's side of the correspondence does not survive.
82. For the advertisement see Post Boy, 31 Dec.-2 Jan. 1719/20.
83. Desaguliers notes that he sought Newton's permission for the dedication in Desaguliers to Keill, 30 Dec. 1719, fol. 1 v. For the dedication see Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy Confirmed by Experiments; or, An Introduction to Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy: Written in Latin by William-James 'sGravesande... Translated by J. T. Desaguliers (London, 1720)
84. (hereafter cited as Desaguliers, ed., Elements of Natural Philosophy), p. ii.
85. Desaguliers, ed., Elements of Natural Philosophy, p. vi;
86. and Johns, Nature of the Book (cit. n. 2), pp. 227-228 (Stationers registration).
87. Post Boy, 19-21 Jan. 1719/20;
88. Mathematical Elements of Physicks, Prov'd by Experiments: Being an Introduction to Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy: By Dr. Win. James's Gravesande ... Made English ... Revis'd and Corrected, by John Keill... (London, 1720), "The Publisher to the Reader";
89. and Post Man, 16-19 Jan. 1720, 19-21 Jan. 1720.
90. Post Boy, 21-23 Jan. 1719/20, 23-26 Jan. 1719/20;
91. and Rob Iliffe, "Author-Mongering: The 'Editor' between Producer and Consumer," in The Consumption of Culture, 1600-1800: Image, Object, Text, ed. Ann Bermingham and John Brewer (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 166-192, on pp. 167, 168.
92. On Keill's views in the priority dispute see A. Rupert Hall, Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1980), pp. 143-146, 169-183, 202-213;
93. Alan Cook, "The 350th Anniversary of the Birth of G. W. Leibniz, F.R.S.," Notes Rec. Roy. Soc. Lond., 1996, 50:153-163, esp. p. 160;
94. and Niccolo Guicciardini, "Johann Bernoulli, John Keill, and the Inverse Problem of Central Forces," Ann. Sci., 1995, 52:537-575, esp. pp. 539, 554-555
95. For his political appointments see "John Keill," in Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 10, p. 1198.
96. On the influence of Gregory and the succession of Desaguliers see Anita Guerrini and Jole R. Shackelford, "John Keill's De Operationum Chymicarum Ratione Mechanica," Ambix, 1989, 36:138-151, esp. pp. 138-139;
97. Guerrini, 'The Tory Newtonians: Gregory, Pitcairne, and Their Circle," J. Brit. Stud., 1986, 25:183-311, esp. pp. 288-289;
98. and Stewart, Rise of Public Science (cit. n. 1), p. 120.
99. Keill's election to the Royal Society is noted in Hall, Philosophers at War, p. 144.
100. Post Boy, 26-28 Jan. 1719/20;
101. and Desaguliers to Keill, 6 Jan. 1719/20, Cambridge University Library, MS O.XIV.278 (Folder 3), fols. lr-2r.
102. Christine Ferdinand, "Constructing the Framework of Desire: How Newspapers Sold Books in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," in News, Newspapers, and Society in Early Modern Britain, ed. Joad Raymond (London: Cass, 1999), pp. 157-175, notes that book advertisements accounted for 56 percent of the total (p. 165).
103. J. T. Desaguliers, ed., Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy Confirmed by Experiments; or, An Introduction to Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy: The Second Volume (London, 1721), pp. xii, xiii;
104. and Jean Nicolas S. Allamand, ed., Oeuvres philosophiques et mathématiques de Mr. G. J. 'sGravesande, rassemblees et publiees, Vol. 1 (Amsterdam, 1774), p. xxix.
105. Post Boy, 2-4 Feb. 1719/20, 4-6 Feb. 1719/20.
106. Post Boy, Ibid., 6-9 Feb. 1719/20.
107. Post Boy, Ibid., 9-11 Feb. 1719/20.
108. Post Boy, Ibid., 11-13 Feb. 1719/20;
109. and J. T. Desaguliers, ed., Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy Confirmed by Experiments; or, An Introduction to Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy, 2nd ed. (London, 1721), p. iv. Editions with the disclaimer appeared between 1721 and 1737.
110. Post Boy, 18-20 Feb. 1719/20.
111. Post Boy, Ibid., 23-25 Feb. 1719/20.
112. Post Boy, Ibid., l-3 Mar. 1719/20.
113. Desaguliers to Keill, 6 Jan. 1719/20, fol. Ir;
114. and Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, 14 Jan. 1719/20, fol. 422.
115. Feather, Publishing. Piracy, and Politics (cit. n. 20), pp. 5, 67, 179.
116. William Mears, A Catalogue of Modern Books in Divinity, History, Law, Philosophy, Mathematicks, Poetry, &c (London, 1722), pp. 4, 7, 16.
117. H. R. Plomer et al., Dictionaries of the Printers and Booksellers Who Were at Work in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1557-1775 (Oxford: Bibliographical Society, 1977), p. 224;
118. "John Senex," in Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 18, p. 1182;
119. and Stewart, Rise of Public Science (cit. n. 1), p. 28.
120. Royal Society/Council Minutes, Vol. 2, fols. 251 (1719 payment), 232, 237, 243, 244 (1715-1718 payments), 274 (1722 request for accounting); and British Library, Sloane MS 4050, fol. 40r-v.
121. Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, 29 July 1714, fol. 13;
122. Pumfrey, "Who Did the Work?" (cit. n. 8), p. 132;
123. and Shapin, Social History of Truth (cit. n. 4), pp. 355-407.
124. Desaguliers, Course of Experimental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (cit. n. 13), preface;
125. and Simon Schaffer, "The Leviathan of Parsonstown: Literary Technology and Scientific Representation," in Inscribing Science; Scientific Texts and the Materiality of Communication, ed. Timothy Lenoir (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1998), pp. 182-222, on pp. 183, 184.
126. On the transformation of observations into facts see Barbara Maria Stafford, Artful Science: Enlightenment Entertainment and the Eclipse of Visual Education (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994), pp. 138-139;
127. and Barbara Shapiro, A Culture of Fact: England, 1550-1720 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2000), pp. 112, 117.
128. The classic account remains Shapin, Social History of Truth.
129. Royal Society, Journal Books, Vol. 11, fol. 8; and British Library, Sloane MS 4049, fol. 215r-v.
130. Daily Courant, 23 Nov. 1720 (Desaguliers), 18 Nov. 1720 (alternatives).
131. On the number and variety of London lecturers see Stewart, "Selling of Newton" (cit. n. 18), pp. 178-192;
132. Stewart, Rise of Public Science (cit. n. 1);
133. and Nicholas Hans, New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), pp. 136-150
134. . On the limits of the lecture season see Snobelen, "Selling Experiment" (cit. n. 8), p. 129.
135. Daily Courant: for Whiston and Hauksbee see 9 Jan. 1719, 9, 11, 13 Nov. 1719, 20 Jan. 1720, 3, 5, 8, Feb. 1720, 18, 23 Nov. 1720; for Worster and Watts see 9 Jan. 1719, 11 Nov. 1719, 20 Jan. 1720, 18 Nov. 1720; for Desaguliers see 22 Oct. 1719, 10 Nov. 1719, 15 Jan. 1720, 23 Nov. 1720. It is not entirely certain how many lectures Desaguliers offered a year because he did not always advertise them in the papers. Sec Snobelen, "Selling Experiment," p. 177.
136. On guidebooks see G. S. Rousseau, "Science Books and Their Readers in the Eighteenth Century," in Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth-Century England, ed. Isabel Rivers (New York: St. Martin's, 1982), p. 208;
137. Patricia Fara, Sympathetic Attractions: Magnetic Practices, Beliefs, and Symbolism in Eighteenth-Century England (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1996), pp. 16, 39;
138. and Adrian Johns, "History, Science, and the History of the Book: The Making of Natural Philosophy in Early Modern England," Publishing History; 1991, 30:5-30.
139. On advertising see Michael Harris, "Timely Notices: The Uses of Advertising and Its Relationship to News during the Seventeenth Century," Prose Studies, 1998, 21:141-156, on p. 144.
140. Desaguliers, Course of Experimental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (cit. n. 13), under the index. Desaguliers's frustration with translations and booksellers continued after 1720. He attempted to circumvent the threat with a personal guarantee: "Whereas some Booksellers have declared, that as soon as my Course comes out, they will get it translated into French (as cheap as they can, no doubt) lest my Book should be spoil'd by an hasty, and perhaps ignorant Translator, I intend to translate it myself, having already done more than half; and if any other Translations appears, I shall write my Name in each Book with my own Hand" (ibid., p. Br).
141. A notable example of the fruitful use of advertisements is found in Stephen D. Snobelen, "William Whiston: Natural Philosopher, Prophet, Primitive Christian" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Cambridge, 2000), pp. 59-192.