Quicksilver Reading CompanionIn a smoky London coffee-house in the spring of 1685, Daniel Waterhouse and Roger Comstock discuss the eccentricities of their scientific peers and the revolutionary mathematical work being produced by Isaac Newton.
“mixing up his dinner: a compound of mercury, iron filings, flowers of sulfur, purgative waters” — Hooke was known for self-medicating with various chemicals and recording the effects; this reflects the era’s blurred lines between chemistry, medicine, and alchemy.
“elixir vitae and usquebaugh” — From the original wiki (Jere7My Tho Rpe): “Elixir Vitae is the ultimate goal of alchemists and the imputed contents of the Philosopher’s Stone, capable of granting eternal life and transmuting base metals into gold. Literally translated, it means “elixir [potion] of life”.
Usquebaugh is whisky (from Gaelic, “uisge beatha”). Literally translated, it means “water of life”.
Roger was making a cross-language pun: i.e., Daniel accused Isaac of drinking the elixir of life, so Roger pointed out that Daniel had himself been drinking the water of life.”
“campaigning like a French regiment through every whorehouse in Whitechapel” — Whitechapel was a district in East London historically known for poverty, overcrowding, and vice outside the city walls.
“natural philosophy as opposed to unnatural theology” — Natural Philosophy was the precursor to modern science; Newton spent as much (if not more) time on radical theological studies and biblical chronology as he did on physics.
“Oldenburg is furious with him because he has failed to bring the digital computer” — Henry Oldenburg was the first Secretary of the Royal Society; he managed a vast network of scientific correspondence across Europe.
“failed to bring the digital computer, as promised!” — Leibniz invented the ‘Stepped Reckoner,’ one of the first mechanical calculators that could perform all four arithmetic operations.
“De Motu Corporum in Gyrum. Halley says it is stupendous.” — De Motu Corporum in Gyrum (“On the motion of bodies in an orbit”) was Newton’s 1684 manuscript which provided the mathematical foundation for universal gravitation. Stephenson’s annotation: The theory is explained in further detail starting on p. 673.
“Halley has an explanation for the orbit of his comet” — Edmond Halley was the astronomer who used Newton’s laws to predict the return of the comet that now bears his name.
“And with Flamsteed around to depress the statistics” — John Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal, known for his meticulous observations and his frequent professional clashes with Newton and Halley.
“Louise de Kéroualle and her cleavage had hove into view” — A mistress of Charles II and a French spy, Louise de Kéroualle wielded significant political influence at the English court.
“finding the Longitude by plotting the motions of the moon against the stars” — The Longitude Problem was the greatest navigational challenge of the age; the ‘Lunar Distance’ method was a primary scientific theory for determining a ship’s east-west position at sea.
“Christopher Wren” — The famed architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral and a founding member of the Royal Society, Christopher Wren had a deep background in astronomy before turning to building.
“Charles II had appointed him Astronomer Royal and founded the Royal Observatory.” — The Royal Observatory was established in 1675 at Greenwich specifically to improve navigation and solve the longitude problem through astronomical observation.
“The ball transfers its vis viva into another ball” — Vis Viva (literally ‘living force’) was an early term for kinetic energy, which was at the center of a major debate in 17th-century physics regarding conservation laws.
“it describes a Galilean trajectory, a parabola.” — This refers to Galilean mechanics and the discovery that projectiles follow a parabolic path, a cornerstone of early modern kinematics.
“The French and the Papists are running the country now” — This refers to the reign of the Catholic King James II, whose pro-French and pro-Catholic policies created intense political and religious tension in England.
“And as the Sun King was now pouring much gold into England” — Louis XIV of France, known as the Sun King, used his immense wealth to subsidize the English monarchy to keep England aligned with French interests.
“any half-wit with a back-staff and an ephemeris could sail unerringly” — A backstaff was a navigational instrument used to measure the altitude of the sun by observing its shadow, allowing sailors to determine their latitude.
“Published the calculus!” — The Calculus Priority Dispute began in earnest with Leibniz’s 1684 publication, which beat Newton to print and sparked a decades-long controversy over who invented the math first.
“Newton seems to agree with you… or else he’s afraid that some Jesuit will say so” — The Jesuits were often viewed with suspicion in Protestant England as agents of the Pope and masters of deceptive logic.
“like the æther filling the void between particles of matter” — In 17th-century physics, aether theory hypothesized a medium that filled all space to explain how light and gravity could travel through a vacuum.
“like something from the Geneva Bible” — The Geneva Bible was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism, favored by Puritans for its anti-authoritarian marginal notes.
“consider these, er, infinitesimals and evanes-cents in a way that is rigorous” — Infinitesimals are mathematical quantities so small they cannot be measured; they were central to the development of calculus and sparked intense philosophical debate.
“cheap stuff from India and Dutch shipping that could bring it to Europe” — The Indian textile trade and the influx of cheap calicoes threatened the traditional English wool industry, leading to protectionist laws.
“enforce the Penal Laws, all of Suffolk’s most outstanding Quakers, Barkers, Ranters, Congregationalists, Presbyterians” — The Penal Laws upheld the rites of the Church of England and punished English Dissenters—Protestant groups that separated from the official church.
“most clipped, worn, filed-down, and adulterated coins” — Before milled edges were standard, people practiced clipping, or shaving silver from the edges of coins, leading to a massive currency crisis in England.
“showed up at Stourbridge Fair peddling this or that” — Stourbridge Fair was one of the largest and most famous fairs in Europe, held near Cambridge; it was a massive center of commerce for all social classes.
“supposing that we’ll rally about his standard as if he really gives a farthing for Freedom of Conscience!” — This refers to the Declaration of Indulgence, James II’s 1687 attempt to establish religious toleration, which many Protestants viewed as a cynical move to favor Catholics.
“the Duke of Monmouth having his head gradually hacked off by Jack Ketch” — Jack Ketch was a notorious English executioner known for his clumsiness; it famously took him five strokes to behead Monmouth.
“Greeks, e.g., Euclid, had done all of these things long ago” — Euclid was the ancient Greek mathematician whose ‘Elements’ served as the foundation for geometry for centuries.
“LIBRI I. CONICORVM APOLLONII” — Apollonius of Perga was a Greek geometer whose work ‘Conics’ defined the properties of the ellipse and parabola. Stephenson’s annotation: This is from a 1655 edition… Alvy Ray Smith created this graphic by propping the book up in a window… then cleaning up and recombining the images digitally.
“Newton had requested information concerning the comet of 1680” — The Great Comet of 1680 was the first discovered by telescope; its path was crucial for Newton to prove that comets followed the laws of gravity.
“Kepler and Copernicus” — Key figures of the Scientific Revolution; Kepler and Copernicus respectively established the laws of planetary motion and the heliocentric model.
“If they moved on conic sections, it was no accident.” — Conic sections (ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas) are the curves obtained by intersecting a cone with a plane; Newton proved planetary orbits follow these shapes.
“The notion that the Sun exerted some centripetal force on the planets” — Centripetal force is the ‘center-seeking’ force Newton identified as necessary to keep planets in curved orbits.
“Titan (the moon of Saturn that Huygens had discovered)” — Christiaan Huygens was a prominent Dutch physicist who discovered Titan and invented the pendulum clock.
“Wren’s library had started building” — Designed by Christopher Wren in 1676, the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture.
“the Duke of Tweed—a.k.a. General Lewis, the L in Charles II’s CABAL” — The CABAL Ministry was a group of five high-ranking ministers who dominated English policy; ‘Tweed’ is a fictionalized version of the Duke of Lauderdale.
“this was Vigani, the alchemist.” — John Francis Vigani was an Italian chemist who became the first Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge and was a real-life associate of Newton.
“considering what King Louis does to Huguenots” — Huguenots were French Protestants who were severely persecuted under Louis XIV, leading to a mass exodus from France.
“the one who has been spotted in the Hague?” — William III of Orange was the Dutch Stadtholder who eventually took the English throne in the Glorious Revolution.
“Sir Robert Moray gazing at a stuffed eel in a glass box” — Sir Robert Moray was a Scottish statesman and a primary founder of the Royal Society.
“addressed to JEOVA SANCTUS UNUS” — Jeova Sanctus Unus is an Latin anagram of ‘Isaacus Neuutonus’ (Isaac Newton); it translates to ‘Jehovah Holy One,’ reflecting Newton’s private anti-trinitarian views.
“dimensions of the Tabernacle to Moses and Temple with its Courts to David & Ezekiel” — Newton believed the floor plan of Solomon’s Temple encoded the structure of the universe.
“I am working out the System of the World upstairs” — This refers to the Principia Mathematica, specifically the third book, which applied his laws of motion to the entire universe. Stephenson’s annotation: What is presented in this chapter is a fictionalized account of how Newton came to write Principia… the fictional characters Roger Comstock and Daniel Waterhouse are shown playing roles that are very loosely analogous to what Edmund Halley did in real life.
“If the centripetal force is governed by an inverse-square law” — The inverse-square law states that a physical quantity’s intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source.
“each of the moon’s particles attracts the water in Earth’s oceans to create tides.” — Newton’s theory of tides was the first to provide a mathematical explanation for the interaction between the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
“Isaac produced another sheet… a diagram of an eyeball” — Newton’s Optics involved famous, often dangerous experiments on the human eye to understand how light and color are perceived.
“the God of Spinoza, a God that is everything and therefore nothing.” — Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher whose pantheistic view—that God and Nature are one—was considered heretical by his contemporaries.
“Hypothesis non fingo.” — Hypotheses non fingo is Newton’s famous phrase meaning ‘I feign no hypotheses,’ expressing his refusal to speculate on the ‘cause’ of gravity when he could only prove its ‘effects’ mathematically.
Original annotations by: rpe, stephenson, stuntz, bornstein, miller