Thursday 28 January 1668/69
Up, and to the office, where all the afternoon, also after dinner, and there late dispatching much business, and then home to supper with my wife, and to get her to read to me, and here I did find that Mr. Sheres hath, beyond his promise, not only got me a candlestick made me, after a form he remembers to have seen in Spain, for keeping the light from one’s eyes, but hath got it done in silver very neat, and designs to give it me, in thanks for my paying him his 100l. in money, for his service at Tangier, which was ordered him; but I do intend to force him to make me [pay] for it. But I yet, without his direction, cannot tell how it is to be made use of. So after a little reading to bed.
12 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online
Ian. 28. - The curator made an Expt. tending to shew that a body once put into motion would moue perpetually if it met wth noe resistance. this he did by hanging a wheel having a pointed peice of Iron in it on a capped Loadstone and putting it into motion by a pair of bellows, whereby the wheel conteined its motion for a considerable time as hauing but Little resistance which was noe other than tht of the air in which it moued round, It was suggested that it were worth obseruing how the veLocitys of this motion decreased in aequall times. --
about Ioachim Iungius. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joac… ]
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…
Jesse • Link
Royal Society today: "that it were worth observing"
Why? The answer to that question was only just being formulated in the 17th century. How many of us today have forgotten the answer?
allan russell • Link
Sam you are a modern man. You don't need a user manual for the candle
Grahamt • Link
It seems the R.S. have pre-empted both Newton`s First Law and magnetic bearings.
JWB • Link
Newton credited Galileo's study of inertia as
source of 1st Law.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"in thanks for my paying him his 100l. in money, for his service at Tangier"
The payment was for work on the mole. (L&M)
Scube • Link
Sam doesn't seem to mention his great new toy (the horses and carriage) much. Wonder if he is getting much use out of them.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Scube, at the end of last month Pepys broke a charriot window. Now it's cold, raining, snowing and blowing (see the daily weather forecast).
I wouldn't be out in a coach with a broken window in this weather. Amongst other things, Elizabeth would get pneumonia, and it would ruin the leather seating. Pepys gave us the estimate for getting it fixed, so it's at the dealers now. You know how long the dealers take, to make sure you value their care and workmanship!
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Scube • Link
SDS - Good point. Guess Sam couldn't just order up a new window to be delivered the next day.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Apparently not ... first of all, it was broken in the middle of the Christmas / New Year's holidays which ends on Jan 6. Workers valued their time off.
The dealership probably had to take the door apart to insert the glass in its leather straps, and then rebuild the door, and reupholster it. Did theyn use the same leather, or have to find a match to the rest of the coach?
Plus the glass was probably a custom order from who knows where, and you can't give a large sheet of glass to a rider on a fast horse. It must be transported carefully in a waggon, which could get mired in mud in the winter. If I were the supplier, I'd send three pieces seperately, just in case.
Still, a month is a long time.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Hey, we're wrong, Scube: Pepys was using his own coach on January 25. Maybe the coachman had a cold? They didn't want to trust the inexperienced new horses in icy weather ... who knows.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Stephane Chenard • Link
We are fascinated by this Spanish-style candlestick "made (...) for keeping the light from one’s eyes". A lampshade would seem to do the trick, but since it's worth £100 and Sam "cannot tell how it is to be made use of", we phant'sy instead a phantastick contraption of lenses, clockwork and mirrors. Is there a candlestick expert who can illuminate us?