Quicksilver Reading CompanionAboard the Minerva in the Massachusetts Bay in October 1713, Daniel Waterhouse reflects on the mathematical laws governing the ship’s movement before reminiscing about his early days at Cambridge with Isaac Newton.
“Bernoulli has set down using the calculus—Leibniz’s version” — The Bernoulli family, specifically brothers Jacob and Johann, were pioneering mathematicians who applied calculus to fluid dynamics and the physics of sails and hulls.
“St. Elmo’s Fire” — A weather phenomenon where luminous plasma is created by a corona discharge from a pointed object, such as a ship’s mast, during a storm; it was historically viewed by sailors with religious awe. St. Elmo’s Fire is a physical manifestation of a strong electric field in the atmosphere.
“Athens of Plato and Aristotle” — These foundational Greek philosophers established a teleological view of the universe that dominated European thought for nearly two millennia. The Scientific Revolution was largely a movement to dismantle the physics of Aristotle in favor of empirical observation.
“Isaac Barrow” — A theologian and mathematician who served as the first Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. Stephenson’s annotation: Stephenson recommends the book Huygens and Barrow, Newton & Hooke by V.I. Arnol’d for those interested in how Isaac Barrow and his contemporaries pioneered mathematical analysis.
“stourbridge fair” — From the original wiki (Alan Sinder): “In 1661 Newton accordingly entered as a student at Cambridge, where for the first time he found himself among surroundings which were likely to develop his powers. At the beginning of his first October term he happened to stroll down to Stourbridge Fair, and there picked up a book on astrology, but could not understand it on account of the geometry and trigonometry.”
“Luther’s theses on the church-door” — This refers to the Ninety-five Theses, a list of propositions for academic debate written by Martin Luther in 1517. The event is traditionally cited as the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation and the end of Catholic hegemony in Europe.
“Newton would not have to go back home to Woolsthorpe” — Woolsthorpe Manor was Newton’s family home in Lincolnshire. He famously retreated there during the Great Plague of 1665–1666, a “year of wonders” during which he developed his theories on calculus, optics, and gravity in isolation.
“That is what I call a fluxion” — The Method of Fluxions was Newton’s specific term for his version of differential calculus, which treated mathematical variables as “flowing” quantities that changed over time.
Original annotations by: stephenson, sinder