A.D. 1627.—Hakewill (George), Archdeacon of Surrey, publishes at Oxford, England, the first edition of “An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God,” the tenth chapter, fourth section of the third book of which alludes to the use of the “mariner’s compass or sea-card, as also of another excellent invention sayd to be lately found out upon the loadstone.” As the reviewer justly observes: “While perusing his description one can hardly imagine that the writer had not in his mind’s eye one of our modern telegraphic instruments ... and it will be seen that the date at which his work is written was nearly two hundred years prior to the first attempt made to communicate at a distance by means of magnetic needles.”
Hakewill alludes (“Apologie,” 1635, lib. ii. p. 97) to Hipparchus—Abraxis—“who reports that, in his time, the starre commonly called the Polar Starre, which is in the tayle of the lesser Beare, was twelve degrees and two-fifths distant from the Pole of the Æquator. This starre, from age to age, hath insensibly still crept nearer to the pole so that at this present it is not past three degrees distant from the pole of the Æquator. When this starre then shall come to touch the Pole, there being no farther place left for it to go forward (which may well enough come to pass with five or six hundred yeares) it is likely that then there shall be a great change of things, and that this time is the period which God hath prefixed to Nature” (see Morell’s “Elem. ... Phil. and Sc.,” London, 1827, pp. 116–119 et seq.).
Mention of the star in the tail of Ursa Major is made by Gilbert, (“De Magnete”),[41] in connection (1) with Marcilius Ficinus, who, says he, seeks in that constellation the cause of the magnetic direction, as he believes that in the loadstone the potency of Ursa prevails and hence is transferred to the iron; (2) with Cardan, who assigns the cause of variation to its rising, for he thinks variation is always to be relied upon at the rising of the star; (3) with Lucas Gauricus, who holds that the loadstone beneath the tail of Ursa Major is ruled by the planets Saturn and Mars; (4) with Gaudentius Merula, who believes that the loadstone draws iron and makes it point North because it is of a higher order than is the iron in the Bear.
References.—Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IX. p. 26; “Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” Vol. XXIV. pp. 6–8; Walton and Cotton, “Complete Angler,” New York and London, 1847, Part I. p. 118.
A.D. 1628.—Leurechon (Jean), a student belonging to the Order of Jesuits (1591–1670), who became the confessor of Charles IV of Lorraine, publishes, under the name H. Van Etten, “La Récréation Mathématique,” carefully revised editions of which were made by Claude Mydorge and Denis Henrion in 1630, 1638 and 1661. In these, Leurechon alludes to the reported transmission of intelligence by the agency of a magnet or other like stone, saying: “The invention is beautiful, but I do not think there can be found in the world a magnet that has such virtue.”
References.—Georges Maupin, “Opinions touchant la mathématique,” Paris, 1898, pp. 20–24; Larousse, “Dict.,” Vol. X. p. 436; “Sc. Am. Suppl.,” Nos. 56, p. 881, and 384, p. 6125.
The curious title-page of the English version of Leurechon’s work, published by T. Cotes in 1633, merits reproduction: “Mathematicall Recreations, or a Collection of sundrie Problemes, extracted out of the Ancient and Moderne Philosophers, as secrets in nature, and experiments in Arithmeticke, Geometrie, Cosmographie, Horologographie, Astronomie, Navigation, Musicke, Optickes, Chimestrie, Waterworkes, Fireworks, etc., Fit for Schollers, Students, and Gentlemen ... lately compiled in French by Henry Van Hetten. And now delivered in the English tongue.”
Claude Mydorge, as stated in the “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XXXVII. p. 87, was a French scientist (1585–1647), a very close friend of Descartes, and, according to Baillet, was next to Vieta, the foremost mathematician of his day. The second edition of his “Examen du livre des Récréations Mathématiques (du Père Leurechon),” contains notes of Denis Henrion following the observations of Père Mersenne in “Universæ ...” Paris, 1639 (see Bouillet, “Vie de Descartes,” Vol. I. pp. 36–37, 149–150, and Vol. II. pp. 43, 76, 78, 325).
Denis Henrion was also a French mathematician, who died about 1640. He was the author of many very meritorious papers, notably of a “Traité des Globes et de leurs usages,” 1618, translated from the Latin of Robert Hues, 1593, 1594 (Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IX. p. 192).
A.D. 1629.—Cabæus—Cabeo (Nicolaus), a learned Jesuit of Ferrara, describes (“Philosophia Magnetica”)[42] numerous experiments made by him to ascertain the possibility of two persons communicating intelligence by means of magnetized needles.