Quicksilver Reading CompanionDaniel Waterhouse assists with the pyrotechnics for a popular play in London while the city anxiously awaits news from the naval front of the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
“A fifth doctrine, that tendeth to the dissolution of a commonwealth… —HOBBES, Leviathan” — Thomas Hobbes was an influential English philosopher whose 1651 work Leviathan argued for absolute sovereignty as the only way to avoid the “war of all against all” seen during the English Civil War.
“richard” — From the original wiki (comstock): “The remark which Stephenson attributes here to John Comstock at Richard Comstock’s funeral, was in fact written by John Evelyn as a comment upon the death of Lord Sandwich (The Command of the Ocean, A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815 by N.A.M. Rodger, page 86). RussellBlatcher@dsl.pipex.com”
“London during this the Third Dutch War, waiting for news of the Fall of Holland.” — The Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–1674) saw England and France allied against the Dutch Republic; the conflict was deeply unpopular in England due to religious ties with the Protestant Dutch and the high cost of the naval campaign.
“cannonball rolling down a Spiral of Archimedes in a wooden barrel” — The Archimedean Spiral is a mathematical curve described by the ancient Greek polymath; here, Daniel uses the geometry to create a mechanical sound effect for theatrical thunder.
“King Charles came frequently to watch his Nellie sing her pretty songs” — Nell Gwyn was a famous Restoration actress and the most beloved mistress of King Charles II, celebrated for her wit and her rise from “orange girl” to royal favorite.
“fell under the guns of Admiral de Ruyter at Sole Bay” — The Battle of Solebay (1672) was the first naval engagement of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, where the Dutch fleet under Michiel de Ruyter surprised the joint English and French fleets.
“King Charles shut down the Exchequer one day” — Known as the Great Stop of the Exchequer (1672), Charles II suspended payments on government debts to fund the war, which triggered a massive financial crisis and ruined many London goldsmith-bankers.
“libels depicting the atrocities of King Looie’s army in Holland” — Louis XIV, the “Sun King” of France, invaded the Netherlands in 1672, an event known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year).
“so these held up Goldsmiths’s Notes addressed to Thomas Ham” — Goldsmiths’ Notes were early forms of paper money; goldsmiths issued these receipts for gold deposited with them, and they eventually began to circulate as a medium of exchange.
“shame about the Guinea Company, what?” — The Guinea Company was a chartered company set up by the Stuart family to trade in gold, ivory, and slaves; it faced financial ruin during the Anglo-Dutch Wars.
“creating a new Royal Africa Company.” — The Royal African Company was established in 1672 to replace the failed Guinea Company, holding a monopoly on the English slave trade.
“The Duke of York has resigned the Admiralty…” — The Test Act of 1673 required all public officials to take Anglican communion; James resigned his post because he had secretly converted to Catholicism.
“marry that nice Catholic girl” — Mary of Modena was the second wife of James, Duke of York; her religion and the prospect of a Catholic heir fueled intense political unrest in England.
“spiritous essence, found in fresh air, for which fire competes with living animals.” — This refers to the early discovery of oxygen through experiments by Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke, who realized a specific component of air was necessary for both combustion and respiration.
“naming New York after him?” — Following the capture of New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the English renamed the colony New York in honor of the Duke of York.
“St. Paul’s will be rebuilt there anon—’pon mathematick principles” — The medieval St Paul’s Cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666; Wren’s redesign used innovative geometry and engineering to support its massive dome.
“King seized the gold and silver… in the Tower of London” — The Seizure of the Mint occurred in 1640 when Charles I confiscated £130,000 of merchants’ bullion to fund his wars, permanently destroying the Crown’s reputation as a safe depository.
“William of Orange had opened the sluices” — To halt the French invasion in 1672, the Dutch utilized the Dutch Water Line, intentionally flooding their own countryside to create an impassable barrier of water.
“eventually reached Bedlam, and found an evening’s refuge there amid piles of dressed stone and splats of mortar.” — Bedlam (Bethlem Royal Hospital) was being rebuilt at Moorfields into a grand Baroque structure designed by Robert Hooke at the time of this chapter.
“Oldenburg pesters me every day to complete the Arithmetickal Engine.” — Henry Oldenburg was the first Secretary of the Royal Society and acted as a central hub for scientific correspondence across Europe.
“Arithmetickal Engine” — This refers to the Stepped Reckoner, a digital mechanical calculator invented by Leibniz that was the first to perform all four arithmetic operations.
“When I get back to the Bibliothèque du Roi, I will turn all of my efforts to mathematics.” — The Bibliothèque du Roi was the French Royal Library in Paris, where Leibniz spent years researching and eventually developed his version of calculus.
“If you sum this series, it will slowly converge on pi.” — Known as Gregory’s Series, this infinite series (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7…) was discovered by Leibniz around 1673. Stephenson’s annotation: ‘We have now seen two generations of the Waterhouse family educated in the Leibniz series… shown by Alan Turing to Lawrence Waterhouse on page 15 of Cryptonomicon.’
“panes of glass, neatly scored with black Cartesian grids, plotted with foreshortened parabolae—the trajectories of actual cannonballs.” — The study of ballistics was a major focus of 17th-century science, as researchers moved from Aristotelian theories to the parabolic paths identified by Galileo.
“one of many such piston-and-cylinder devices he and Boyle used” — The Boylean Air Pump was used to create vacuums, leading to the discovery of Boyle’s Law regarding gas pressure and volume.
“mostly on the bottom of the sea, thanks to Admiral de Ruyter.” — Michiel de Ruyter was the legendary Dutch Admiral who led his fleet to several major victories against the English and French.
“Why, the Declaration! Haven’t you heard? Freedom of conscience for Dissenters” — The Royal Declaration of Indulgence (1672) was Charles II’s attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Catholics, though it was quickly rescinded due to political pressure.
“Whitehall Palace” — Whitehall Palace was the main residence of the English monarchs in London from 1530 until it was mostly destroyed by fire in 1698.
“smuggled into the ‘Siege of Maestricht,’ where it caused a cannon to explode” — The Siege of Maastricht (1673) was a key battle in the Franco-Dutch War where the Duke of Monmouth led English troops alongside the French.
“Ten inches of sheepgut with a knot in one end” — A reference to early contraception; 17th-century condoms were made from animal intestines and were used primarily to prevent the spread of syphilis.
“the coach rattled into the middle of St. Bartholomew’s Fair” — St. Bartholomew’s Fair was a massive, rowdy annual summer fair in Smithfield, London, famous for its mix of commerce and grotesque entertainment.
Original annotations by: comstock, rpe, sinder