Terry Foreman on 2 May 2009  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

May. 2. 1666. The expt. of the Loadstones attraction in water was tryed: and it was found that the Loadstone and the iron ball touching one another vnder water held 128 graines before they were separated. and the water being drawn off from the Loadstone and the Loadstone dryed. the two bodys held very neer the same weight before separation soe that the magnet seems to be as powerfull in the water as in the air. (Dr. Goddard q whether the distance of Attraction the same- as in air)
minerall from Guine)
mr.Chumly the making of allum [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum… ])

The Expts. were made with two Loadstone, one a terrella the other of an Irregular figure and some steel dust being scatterd about them there appeard vpon the different position of the Later in Respect of the former, different and odde postures in the said Dust. mr Hooke was orderd to describe these postures in Schemes and to bring it into the Society

(mr Powle brought in the History of Iron. or an account of the manner of its preparation in the forrest of Dean. Registred) [ Henry Powle, "The History of Iron, or an Account of the manner of its Preparation in the Forrest of Deane," 2 May 1666 http://www.lexisnexis.com/documen… p. 37 ]

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

See also: Forest of Dean History. Marefold and the Furnace. The Dark Hill foundry site is where the age of IRON ended and the STEEL age began http://www.fweb.org.uk/Dean/deanh…

cape henry on 3 May 2009  •  Link

Thanks, TF, for these early Enlightenment updates. I am probably not alone in appreciating your connecting Pepys' era to the future in this way.

Robert Gertz on 3 May 2009  •  Link

"...and there staid a great while with Nan idling away the afternoon with pleasure..."

Heaven...

Hearing on the application of Samuel Pepys for early release from Purgatory...

"...And in May of 1666, a major step forward for race relations...Right here..." points to Diary entry. Narrow glance to side...

"Mrs. Pepys?...Are you trying to be funny?" bearded figure behind placard identifying him as "Peter" frowns.

"Pushing it, love..." Sam, to side, hisses.

Terry Foreman on 3 May 2009  •  Link

cape henry, it is my concern to try to imagine -- by extrapolation from what we have of Hooke's notes and the published proceedings of the Royal Society -- what the concerns of the "discourse" of their meetings, both formal and informal, might have been.

Oh, to have an audio recording of those!

The "Viruosos" ensemble were far from being impractical "airy" intellectuals, as we have seen most lately from their concerns about "chariots". (This will go on for awhile -- and is but one of the ways in which Robert Hooke will employ springs.)

Among the major interests already evidenced and going forward are (1) navigation (i.a., magnetic devices used for same; optical aids; the nature of the heavenly bodies to us; and the longitude problem; (2) respiration (this made acute in light of the late plague) and (3) blood transfusion (these last two bearing on how the human organism works and might be improved).

There are others along the way. Powle's *History of Iron" is a good example.

Tony Eldridge on 3 May 2009  •  Link

find the girle yet better, so no fear of being forced to send her out of doors as we intended.
Were they going to simply turn Susan out on to the streets if they thought she had the plague? There seems to be no thought of summoning a doctor for a mere servant.

Mary on 3 May 2009  •  Link

Difficult to tell what had been intended for the girl if she had proved to be really ill.

During the height of the plague we did hear of at least one servant who was lodged in some kind of out-house, away from the family, when he fell ill. Perhaps this is what Pepys indicates by 'out of doors'. The plague, though much abated, is still present in the City.

Robert Gertz on 3 May 2009  •  Link

"But where be I goin' Mr. Pepys? I don't feel so well..."

"Now, now, girl..." Sam calls from doorway, face heavily covered. "Don't worry, these men are taking you to a wonderful place where you'll be taken care of properly just as if you were the King's daughter himself."

Right... The two men bearing Susan's bed, both wearing plague masks, eye each other through their eyeholes...

"And remember, Susan...We must be very quiet on our journey to this wonderous place else they may not take you and you would have to go to the place where the misbehaving, noisy ill wretches go or even be left in the streets... Remember, girl. Very, very still and quiet... That's right. Off you go, lads and be quick."

What? He eyes a torn-looking Bess. "You want your pearl necklace or you want me spending a fortune to make her last hours a tad more comfortable...?"

"Bring out yer dead..." one of the masked men knocks on the next door.

"

JWB on 3 May 2009  •  Link

To shy or not to shy?

"During the early period of the industry, the source of alkali used was human urine, which contains ammonium sulphate. For a small payment, households kept their urine for collection by the alum manufacturer’s agents, although as the demand outstripped local supply, it was brought by boat from as far afield as London!" , "ALUM:
Production at Carlton alum works" by Ian Miller
http://thehumanjourney.net/index.…

I recall an English officer complaining of the smell of urine stored for same purpose in an American house in which he was being held prisoner during the revolution.

GrahamT on 3 May 2009  •  Link

Out of doors.
This could simply mean away from the home. Colloquially today in the London area "indoors" often means "at home" as in "We've left the kids indoors with a babysitter" or " 'er indoors" (= her at home = one's wife) Viewers of 1970's "Minder" will remember that Arthur Dayley only ever referred to his wife using this phrase .
I had not heard indoors used in that sense before I moved to West London at the end of the 60's, but now I am used to it (just about).

cgs on 3 May 2009  •  Link

"...and with Sir W. Batten to White Hall by coach..."

Oh! 'wot' a bleeding difference a day makes, sorry a year , no I mean 5 years make, it beats walking, allows two trips to the palace.

To the center of power, 'wonce' by land, in the morning, then dinner with the Mistress at home and then 'wonce' 'agin' by water, back to fiddling the accounts for the mole?, then more fiddling with his fancy.
Travel doth broaden the mind.

Terry Foreman on 7 Nov 2015  •  Link

"Thence among other stops went to my ruler’s house"

L&M: The house of the old woman who ruled his paper.

Terry Foreman on 10 Nov 2018  •  Link

" to a Committee for Tangier upon Mr. Yeabsly’s business"

See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Jonathan V on 2 May 2019  •  Link

If Tony ever comes back ... I would imagine that if the girl continued sick, yes, it would have been as simple (and heartless) as just getting her out of the house. One of the measures taken in case of the plague was to shut up houses - with occupants inside. The house would be marked with a red cross, and in some cases a guard posted outside. It might be that Pepys feared being shut in as much as he feared getting sick.

Nate Lockwood on 2 May 2019  •  Link

Ahh, yes, Jonathan V. I imagine that Pepys would really be in the doghouse if the whole 'house' were to be shut up including the other residents!

Louise Hudson on 3 May 2019  •  Link

“Thence among other stops went to my ruler’s house, and there staid a great while with Nan idling away the afternoon with pleasure.”

With Pepys’ proclivities. I’d worry about the “girle”, indoors or out.

Tonyel on 3 May 2019  •  Link

Yes Jonathan, I came back. So thoroughly enjoyed reading the diary first time around that I leapt at the chance of reading it again to see what I'd missed. It's amusing to think of a comment or query now and find that I already raised it ten years ago!