Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm so hey everybody.
Speaker 1: On July this year, that was just a few days ago,
Speaker 1: it was the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo eleven moon landing,
Speaker 1: and last December, the Museum of Flight had reached out
Speaker 1: to us to see if we wanted to participate in
Speaker 1: a pod crawl that they have been doing as part
Speaker 1: of the celebration, And of course we said yes, because
Speaker 1: space history area in which I think is safe to
Speaker 1: say I have some rabies in the good sense. True, true,
Speaker 1: I'm a rabbid fan of space history. But since some
Speaker 1: of the other shows on their list were probably going
Speaker 1: to hit some of the great history of the space
Speaker 1: program that's a little more recent, we thought that it
Speaker 1: might be fun if we reached farther back, way back,
Speaker 1: so far back yeah, to the sixteenth century, uh and
Speaker 1: into the seventeenth century and talk about Thomas Harriet, who
Speaker 1: was a mathematician and astronomer who made some very significant
Speaker 1: telescopic observations, some of which related to the moon. But
Speaker 1: his story is also tied to so many other notable
Speaker 1: historic things, including a lot of business with Sir Walter Rawleigh. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he is really not a household name like a
Speaker 1: lot of his contemporaries are, even though he was neck
Speaker 1: and neck with them in terms of discoveries. And we're
Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about why that's the
Speaker 1: case at the end of the episode, and we'll give
Speaker 1: you more information on that pod crawl at the end
Speaker 1: of the episode in case you want to check out
Speaker 1: the other work that people have been doing to celebrate
Speaker 1: this fiftieth anniversary. A lot of cool podcasts right about now.
Speaker 1: So Harriet was born in Oxford, England, probably in fifteen
Speaker 1: sixty during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, but
Speaker 1: we don't know much at all about the first twenty
Speaker 1: years of his life. This is the case a lot
Speaker 1: of people from that long ago. His parents probably were commoners,
Speaker 1: and then he kind of pops up in the historical
Speaker 1: record when he entered school at the Universe the of
Speaker 1: Oxford at the age of seventeen. He graduated with his
Speaker 1: degree in eight in fifteen eighty, and with an education
Speaker 1: in mathematics and astronomy, he jumped right into working life,
Speaker 1: and the job that he found right out of school
Speaker 1: was working for none other than Sir Walter Raleigh as
Speaker 1: a math tutor and in various other tasks as needed.
Speaker 1: And one of his first projects under Raleigh was the
Speaker 1: composition of a book which was titled arct com which
Speaker 1: was apparently a navigational text. And I have to say apparently,
Speaker 1: because no copy of that writing survives, so we don't
Speaker 1: really know entirely what was included there. At this point
Speaker 1: in history, soldier and explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who was
Speaker 1: Raleigh's half brother, was seen as something of an expert
Speaker 1: on the so called New World of North America. Although
Speaker 1: most of his expeditions had failed, they had slowly drained
Speaker 1: off his coffers. By the time Gilbert died in fifteen
Speaker 1: eight three, Thomas Harriet had convinced Raleigh to continue England's
Speaker 1: exploration of North America. Harriet was instrumental in helping Raleigh
Speaker 1: to prepare for his colonizing expedition in We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this a little bit more. But there's also more
Speaker 1: information about these things than the previous Sir Walter Raleigh episode.
Speaker 1: Peogle want that? Yeah? Uh? Yeah, that's ah, It's not
Speaker 1: as though Raleigh had no interest. And then Thomas Harriet
Speaker 1: was like, we could do that. He was definitely interested,
Speaker 1: but Harriet was like, yes, dude, we can do this
Speaker 1: for real. I will help you. When Raleigh's Virginia expedition
Speaker 1: of that year set out from Plymouth that was on
Speaker 1: April nine, Harriet was aboard as the ship's scientific advisor,
Speaker 1: which included some working cartography as well as giving navigational advice,
Speaker 1: and he was also there as Raleigh's representative, as Raleigh
Speaker 1: himself could not make the trip, so in addition to
Speaker 1: his advisory role on route, once the ship arrived in
Speaker 1: North America, Harriet was to take stock of the land's
Speaker 1: economic potential, and Raleigh also asked Harriet to similarly assess
Speaker 1: the indigenous peoples that the expedition encountered. Harriet, along with
Speaker 1: another man named John White, carried out all these tasks.
Speaker 1: White mapped and sketched the land that they traveled, and
Speaker 1: Harriet made notes on all of it. White also made
Speaker 1: drawings of the native population, and Harriet gathered plants along
Speaker 1: the way. As part of his report. He tried to
Speaker 1: note which ones could be monetized, and we'll talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about conclusions he came to in just
Speaker 1: a moment. Harriet, for his part, seems to have had
Speaker 1: some pretty good relations with the indigenous populations. He was
Speaker 1: really adept at learning languages. Some of the like brief
Speaker 1: like blurbs about him will also say that he was
Speaker 1: like a linguist or language scholar because that was something
Speaker 1: that served him throughout his life. He kind of came
Speaker 1: to it because it made things easier as he could
Speaker 1: then consult various texts in whatever his subject of interest
Speaker 1: was without needing to seek out translations. And he had
Speaker 1: picked up some Algonquin language from two Native Americans who
Speaker 1: had traveled to England before Harriet made his trip across
Speaker 1: the Atlantic, and then once he was in North America,
Speaker 1: he continued to improve his knowledge, specifically of Carolina Algonquin
Speaker 1: that was spoken along the eastern coast in the areas
Speaker 1: they were exploring. By the time assist And arrived at
Speaker 1: the Virginia Colony in the form of Sir Francis Drake's
Speaker 1: fifteen eighties six expedition, things with that fifteen eighty five
Speaker 1: group had become really tenuous, and Harriet and White were
Speaker 1: really eager to get back home, which they did in
Speaker 1: a hurry as soon as Drake could arrange it. While
Speaker 1: Raleigh arranged additional expeditions to the colonies, he moved Harriet
Speaker 1: onto other projects instead of sending him across the Atlantic again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that colonization effort was considered a failure. Uh. An account
Speaker 1: of Harriet's experiences in Raleigh's expedition, A Brief and True
Speaker 1: Report of the Newfoundland of Virginia, was printed in Fight.
Speaker 1: As we all know, I love the crazy long nutty
Speaker 1: titles history, and this one is a doozy. So the
Speaker 1: full name of that book is a Brief and True
Speaker 1: Report of the Newfoundland of Virginia, of the commodities and
Speaker 1: of the nature and manners of the natural inhabitants discovered
Speaker 1: by the English Colony. They're seated by Sir Richard Grenville
Speaker 1: Knight in the year fifteen eighty five, which remained under
Speaker 1: the government of twelve months at the special charge and
Speaker 1: direction of the Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh Night, Lord Warden
Speaker 1: of the standardis who they're in hath been favored and
Speaker 1: authorized by Her Majesty and her letters patents, And then
Speaker 1: it had the after attribution. This four book is made
Speaker 1: in English by Thomas Harriet, servant to the above named
Speaker 1: Sir Walter, a member of the colony, and they're employed
Speaker 1: in discovering I'm tired after getting through that whole name.
Speaker 1: It's really um. It tickles me to look at the
Speaker 1: title page for that book because it is just the
Speaker 1: busiest thing you can imagine. Despite the fact that Thomas Harriet,
Speaker 1: who I feel like we should point out, you'll see
Speaker 1: his name spelled a variety of ways if you go
Speaker 1: looking for it. Um. But despite his many writings and
Speaker 1: accomplishments that he made throughout his years, that was the
Speaker 1: only book of his that was published during his lifetime.
Speaker 1: So White illustrated this book and it details the basics
Speaker 1: of their journey and includes discussion of what caused that
Speaker 1: colony effort to fail. Most of that boils down to
Speaker 1: the people involved really not being ready for just how
Speaker 1: difficult it was going to be, which we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of that story. While for many this failure was
Speaker 1: really damning to Raleigh's colonization efforts, Harriet makes the case
Speaker 1: that future efforts could address the problems from voyage and
Speaker 1: that future attempts should be allowed to continue, and the
Speaker 1: book also delivers on the promise to report on the
Speaker 1: financial potential of colonizing in North America. The first part
Speaker 1: of the book is called of Merchantable Commodities, and in
Speaker 1: it Harriet breaks down the properties of a variety of
Speaker 1: resources that were observed on the journey, and he includes
Speaker 1: entries on grass, silk worm, silk, flax and hemp alum,
Speaker 1: red clay, pitch tar, resonant, turpentine, sassafras, cedar, wine, oil,
Speaker 1: and furs. And in the wine entry he mentioned specifically
Speaker 1: two types of grapes that grow naturally in Virginia that
Speaker 1: could be used to make wine, and under the fur
Speaker 1: entry he specifically mentions otters, which is a little abu.
Speaker 1: He continues on with deer skins, iron copper pearls, sweet gums,
Speaker 1: dyes of diverse kinds, and sugar canes. The section concludes
Speaker 1: with the possibility of importing other commodities that could be
Speaker 1: planted in Virginia and thrive, and the high likelihood that
Speaker 1: there are also other potential resources native to the area
Speaker 1: which surely had not yet been discovered. The second section
Speaker 1: of the book is titled of such commodities as Virginia
Speaker 1: is known to yield for vittle and sustenance of man's life,
Speaker 1: usually fed upon by the natural inhabitants, as also by
Speaker 1: us during the time of our abroad, and first of
Speaker 1: such as are sewed and husbanded. The section is not
Speaker 1: about goods to be exported or traded, but the resources
Speaker 1: that could be counted on to sustain a colony, and
Speaker 1: these included beans, peas, gourds, and various herbs, as well
Speaker 1: as root vegetables and fruits. Strawberries, mulberrious chestnuts, walnuts, and
Speaker 1: acorns are all mentioned. Harriet also described the planting practices
Speaker 1: he observed is carried out by the indigenous pepulation and
Speaker 1: ways that those could be replicated on a larger scale.
Speaker 1: Later on in this section is a discussion of the
Speaker 1: wild game that could be caught in the area, including
Speaker 1: deer coney's, which some debate on whether that just meant
Speaker 1: like slightly different rabbits, squirrels, and bears. And there's a
Speaker 1: second part of the beasts section that is just about birds,
Speaker 1: including turkeys, doves, partridges, cranes, swans, and geese. He also
Speaker 1: mentions parrots, falcons and hawks, of which he writes, quote,
Speaker 1: although with us they be not used for meat, yet
Speaker 1: for other causes, I thought good to mention. And then uh,
Speaker 1: there are seafood options that he mentions, including various fish, crustaceans,
Speaker 1: and mollusks. Uh. I know that there are lots of
Speaker 1: people who call rabbits coney's. So yeah, but then sometimes
Speaker 1: if you look it up, people will say, no, it's
Speaker 1: like a related rodent, but not exactly around it. Really,
Speaker 1: it was just a word that got used a lot,
Speaker 1: and as a consequence that has brewed some debate. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about the final section of the book, as well
Speaker 1: as its impact on both with America and Europe, after
Speaker 1: we first pause for a quick sponsor break. The third
Speaker 1: section of Harriet's book is called of such other things
Speaker 1: as behooful for those which shall plant and inhabit, to
Speaker 1: know of with a description of the nature and manners
Speaker 1: of the people of the country, And that is exactly
Speaker 1: what you might expect. It's a guide of sorts for
Speaker 1: anyone trying to make a go of it in the colonies.
Speaker 1: It offers, for example, insights into what trees might be
Speaker 1: good for lumber, and also what to expect from the
Speaker 1: native population, and on and on. Harriet's characterization of the
Speaker 1: indigenous people's is important because though he absolutely makes it
Speaker 1: clear that he finds them to quote show excellence of wit,
Speaker 1: he also mentions a lot of ideas that really telegraph
Speaker 1: the future for relations between the European colonists and North
Speaker 1: America's indigenous population. Here is the passage that really illustrates
Speaker 1: this quote. If their fall out any wars between us
Speaker 1: and them, what their fight is likely to be? We
Speaker 1: having advantages against them so many manner of ways. Is
Speaker 1: by our discipline, are strange weapons and devices, else, especially
Speaker 1: by ordinance great and small. It might be easily imagined
Speaker 1: by the experience we have had in some places the
Speaker 1: turning up of their heels against us in running away
Speaker 1: was their best defense. Yeah. He states pretty plainly that
Speaker 1: although he can recognize that the Native Americans exhibit their
Speaker 1: own ingenuity, they also seemed to be in awe of
Speaker 1: the Europeans mechanical achievements, and that that is something that
Speaker 1: could be used to advantage by white settlers. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons we're talking in such detail about Harriett's book,
Speaker 1: and in particular these characterizations, is because this writing was
Speaker 1: hugely influential. It was published in multiple languages, and it
Speaker 1: became the informational text about North America for Europeans. So
Speaker 1: does some degree really laid the groundwork for the ways
Speaker 1: in which indigenous populations were viewed and subsequently treated by
Speaker 1: the colonists. Republished in so many different places, included in
Speaker 1: larger volumes of work about colonization and world exploration, like
Speaker 1: it would be plopped in as a chapter. It really
Speaker 1: really was read by anyone interested in any kind of
Speaker 1: exploration from Europe into North America. And after Harriet returned
Speaker 1: from North America, he settled for a while in Ireland
Speaker 1: in an abbey on land that was owned by Sir
Speaker 1: Walter Raleigh, and that is where he worked on the
Speaker 1: manuscript of a brief entry report. He also surveyed Raleigh's
Speaker 1: Irish property claims. At this point, England was also colonizing
Speaker 1: Ireland after a particularly brutal land grab. Sir Humphrey Gilbert
Speaker 1: that we mentioned earlier in particular, had been really incredibly
Speaker 1: ruthless when it came to killing non combatants during the
Speaker 1: campaigns there as a means to victory and in order
Speaker 1: to seize more Land, while working for Raleigh. During this time,
Speaker 1: Harriet also expanded his efforts in map making. He worked
Speaker 1: alongside famed English maker Emriy Molanu and with a Belgian
Speaker 1: map maker, gerardis Mercator, to assist in refining their efforts
Speaker 1: to be more accurate. In the fifteen nineties, after more
Speaker 1: than fifteen years in Sir Walter Raleigh's employee, Harriett moved
Speaker 1: to work instead for Henry Percy, ninth, Earl of Northumberland,
Speaker 1: who was a friend of Sir Walter Raleigh. And this
Speaker 1: was due to the fact that Sir Walter Raleigh was
Speaker 1: mired in his own issues. His colony projects, both in
Speaker 1: Ireland in North America had not really gone terribly well,
Speaker 1: and his secret marriage to best Rock Morton led Raleigh
Speaker 1: to fall out of favor with the Queen. We talked
Speaker 1: about all of this in our Beheading of Walter Raleigh
Speaker 1: episode if you want to get the whole scoop on
Speaker 1: that um. And though Sir Walter Raleigh was able to
Speaker 1: regain his position at court eventually it kind of get
Speaker 1: his favor back, the instability of his fortunes just led
Speaker 1: Harriet to seek work elsewhere. But the two men did
Speaker 1: not seem to have any ill will between them over
Speaker 1: this change and employment. They stayed close friends for the
Speaker 1: rest of their lives. Harriet moved once again to land
Speaker 1: and a home that was granted to him by his hatron.
Speaker 1: Percy gave Thomas Harriet an estate in Durham, England, as
Speaker 1: well as a home just west of London. He used
Speaker 1: the house that was conferred upon him as his workplace home,
Speaker 1: and he set up a lab there for his research.
Speaker 1: He continued to study mathematics and astronomy. Many of the
Speaker 1: areas in which he researched and experimented where things he
Speaker 1: had started while he was in Raleigh's employ But in
Speaker 1: this new lab, with a regular annual pension that was
Speaker 1: granted him by Percy, he was able to explore these
Speaker 1: ideas more fully. This is really the point at which
Speaker 1: he becomes a set man like. He doesn't have to
Speaker 1: worry about money, he doesn't have to worry about taking
Speaker 1: care of things. He can just focus on his work.
Speaker 1: And one thing that really starts to emerge when you
Speaker 1: look at Harriet's work is how one thing that he
Speaker 1: was interested tended to lead to another as his curiosity
Speaker 1: became his guide so, for example, he had done some
Speaker 1: work studying ballistics in part of his work for Sir
Speaker 1: Walter Raleigh, where they were planning for uh potential military engagements,
Speaker 1: and that led him to then consider the physics of falling,
Speaker 1: the laws of motion, and these particular efforts actually paralleled
Speaker 1: the work that was being done by Galileo in Italy
Speaker 1: at the same time. This is the case with a
Speaker 1: lot of Harriet's work. He and Galileo were kind of
Speaker 1: like onto a lot of the same concepts, and the
Speaker 1: story goes that it was his work figuring out the
Speaker 1: best way to stack cannonballs on a ship's deck, which
Speaker 1: was an assignment that Raleigh had given to him, that
Speaker 1: led him to think about the structure of matter. He
Speaker 1: was onto the idea that matter was made up of
Speaker 1: smaller component parts, and that led him to be regarded
Speaker 1: with suspicion in certain circles as early as the fifteen nineties.
Speaker 1: Being associated with Sir Walter Raleigh caused Raleigh's critics to
Speaker 1: seek out any possible scandal that they could regarding Harriet,
Speaker 1: and the best that they could clamp onto was the
Speaker 1: fact that he was an atomist. This idea that all
Speaker 1: things could be analyzed to their distinct elementary components. Atomism
Speaker 1: was seen by many at this time as an affront
Speaker 1: to Christianity, and soon a rumor began that Harriet was
Speaker 1: a conjuror and an atheist. Harriet himself never seemed to
Speaker 1: make any conclusive statement or include any notes in his
Speaker 1: known writing that he was anti Christian or pro atheism,
Speaker 1: but it was kind of the decision of the rumor mill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like the rumors that maybe people were secretly Catholic.
Speaker 1: Right In sixteen o three, after Queen Elizabeth the First died,
Speaker 1: Sir Walter Raley was imprisoned in the Tower of London
Speaker 1: under orders from King James the First after being found
Speaker 1: guilty of conspiring to overthrow the new monarch, and Henry
Speaker 1: Percy also found himself in the Tower under King James
Speaker 1: the First rule Percy was implicated in a tertiary way
Speaker 1: in the Gunpowder plot, which was a failed effort to
Speaker 1: assassinate James the First. Henry Percy's cousin, Thomas Percy, was
Speaker 1: an active conspirator in that plot, and it had been
Speaker 1: Henry who had appointed Thomas as a gentleman pensioner without
Speaker 1: express permission to do so from the King, and that
Speaker 1: had given Thomas traction in London to move forward with
Speaker 1: his plot. And for that misstep, Henry Percy stayed in
Speaker 1: the Tower of London for sixteen years and paid a
Speaker 1: hefty fine. Naturally, with his two primary benefactors in hot Water, Thomas,
Speaker 1: Harriet was also looked on with a lot of suspicion.
Speaker 1: He was detained briefly under the charge of having cast
Speaker 1: the King's horoscope, but he was released after being only
Speaker 1: briefly imprisoned. After he regained his freedom, he served as
Speaker 1: a connection from Raleigh and Percy to the outside world.
Speaker 1: He also continued to live at Science House, in the
Speaker 1: home that Percy had given him outside of London. While
Speaker 1: Raleigh was imprisoned, Harriet helped him with his massive History
Speaker 1: of the World writing project, and he looked after the
Speaker 1: education of Algernon Percy. Sir Henry Percy's firstborn son. He
Speaker 1: was the tenth Earl of Northumberland. I think it was
Speaker 1: his third child, but first son. Uh And while his
Speaker 1: name is not as commonly known as many of his
Speaker 1: contemporaries to today's years, Harriet was very well known and
Speaker 1: respected in his own lifetime in part because of that
Speaker 1: book he wrote about North America, but also in the
Speaker 1: scientific community. He and johann As Kepler corresponded about lenses
Speaker 1: and optics beginning in sixteen o six, as the two
Speaker 1: of them worked concurrently on unlocking the understanding of light refraction,
Speaker 1: and during this time Harriet developed the formula that would
Speaker 1: eventually come to be known as Snell's law or the
Speaker 1: Snell Descarte law, which is defined as a relationship between
Speaker 1: the path taken by a ray of light in crossing
Speaker 1: the boundary or surface of separation between two contacting substances,
Speaker 1: and the refractive index of each. Although it wasn't Harriet's
Speaker 1: version of that equation that became famous, uh that law
Speaker 1: is attributed to the Dutchman will Abroard Snell for discovering
Speaker 1: it in se Harriet was completely onto it a decade earlier,
Speaker 1: although he was not the first either. Persian mathematician Ibn
Speaker 1: Salt described the universal relationship for refraction using ratios and
Speaker 1: the sign law all the way back in beating both
Speaker 1: of the Europeans by a very wide six year margin.
Speaker 1: On September sixteen oh seven, Harriet used a cross staff
Speaker 1: instrument to observe of the passing of what would later
Speaker 1: come to be known as Halley's comment. Though Sir Edmund
Speaker 1: Halley wasn't born yet and would see the commet himself
Speaker 1: and its next pass in this further stoked his interest
Speaker 1: in optics. We're going to talk in just a moment
Speaker 1: about Harriet's unpublicized astronomical discoveries, but first we're going to
Speaker 1: hear from one of the sponsors that keeps this show going. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: all of that interest in light refraction and optics that
Speaker 1: we talked about before the break was part of an
Speaker 1: increased interest in telescopes. By sixteen o nine, Harriet had
Speaker 1: started working in earnest with telescopes, both acquiring them and
Speaker 1: making his own, and for the next four years in particular,
Speaker 1: he made a great number of significant astronomical observations with them.
Speaker 1: One of the most important things that Harriet did, and
Speaker 1: wasn't fully accredited until recently, was to observe the Moon
Speaker 1: through a telescope and then make drawings of the lunar
Speaker 1: surface while he was working to try to make sense
Speaker 1: of it. His earliest known drawing of the Moon is
Speaker 1: from July sixteen o nine on the Julian calendar. That
Speaker 1: date is significant because it puts Harriet's work on the
Speaker 1: Moon's observation a few months ahead of Galileo's. Although Galileo
Speaker 1: is usually credited with being the first to be fair,
Speaker 1: Harriet's lunar drawings are incredibly rudimentary. If you just looked
Speaker 1: at them and you did not have the context of
Speaker 1: someone saying that is the moon, it might be something
Speaker 1: you couldn't figure out. They all just kind of look
Speaker 1: like circles with mystery squiggles scrawled on them. But by
Speaker 1: six thirteen he had produced too much more detailed moon maps,
Speaker 1: which may be the first instances of astronomical cartography. I
Speaker 1: will also tell you that I decided while researching this,
Speaker 1: and I am getting one of those is a tattoo. Awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you uh, they are much more recognizably the Moon
Speaker 1: than the earlier drawings. Yeah. And even so, I mean,
Speaker 1: he those are criticized as not really getting the top
Speaker 1: hat graphy exactly right, but it's still like the first
Speaker 1: time someone tried to capture it in map form. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In December of sixteen ten, Harriet was the first person
Speaker 1: to observe sun spots through a telescope, and this too
Speaker 1: happened at about the same time that Galileo was making
Speaker 1: similar observations. Harriet's drawings of these are similar to his
Speaker 1: moon sketches. They're almost inscrutable in terms of what they
Speaker 1: are supposed to be. If you don't know that these
Speaker 1: are sun spots, they just sort of look like blourpy
Speaker 1: dots in a circle. You would think somebody's built something
Speaker 1: on that. There. Really there's no detail. Well, and sometimes
Speaker 1: sun spots do just look like somebody, right, So without
Speaker 1: any context, Yeah, if somebody just held it up to
Speaker 1: you with no you'd be like, I don't did somebody?
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is? Do you find it somewhere? Um.
Speaker 1: It is unclear exactly why Harriet didn't publicize his work,
Speaker 1: particularly these various pieces of potentially history making astronomy. One
Speaker 1: common theory is that because he was in pretty and
Speaker 1: financial standing, he just did not have the compulsion or
Speaker 1: the need to seek attention for his work, which would
Speaker 1: have come with financial benefit. Galileo, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: kind of needed the cash. Uh and the fact that
Speaker 1: his two high profile friends and benefactors were both in
Speaker 1: prison at the time may have also been a factor
Speaker 1: as well. He might have wished to minimize public attention
Speaker 1: for fear that it would just stir up problems, either
Speaker 1: that he would be seen as suspicious again, or that
Speaker 1: it would cause problems for the two of them. In
Speaker 1: sixteen thirteen, Thomas Harriet developed an ulcer on his left nostril,
Speaker 1: and then the problem progressed over the next two years,
Speaker 1: with ulcers developing on his lips and nose. The King's physician,
Speaker 1: Sir Theodore Turquette Demyerne, saw Harriet to examine the problem
Speaker 1: on May sixteen, fifteen and diagnosed it as cancer. The
Speaker 1: doctor noted that the patient seemed melancholy and made mention
Speaker 1: in his rite up that Harriet was the person who
Speaker 1: first brought tobacco from Virginia. This is possibly the first
Speaker 1: time somebody made the connection between tobacco use and cancer,
Speaker 1: at least in a writing. Yeah, it was notable that
Speaker 1: he kind of was discussing this particular problem and then
Speaker 1: brought up the tobacco thing. It's uh, it's an interesting
Speaker 1: connection that I think. I don't know if he was
Speaker 1: particularly insightful or other doctors who are thinking similar things,
Speaker 1: but this is one of the first evidences we have
Speaker 1: of someone actually writing it down. In sixteen eighteen, Harriet
Speaker 1: watched as his friend and supporter, Sir Walter Raleigh was
Speaker 1: executed by beheading. Harriet's health had continued to worsen, so
Speaker 1: that by that year the only things that he really
Speaker 1: noted in his personal papers. And this was a man
Speaker 1: that kept a lot of notes throughout his life. Where
Speaker 1: the death of Raleigh and the observation of a comet
Speaker 1: in SI one, Harriet succumbed to skin cancer. He died
Speaker 1: on July two in the home of Thomas Buckner and
Speaker 1: never married or had any children, and he was buried
Speaker 1: in the Church of St Christopher le Stocks on thread
Speaker 1: Needle Street, near Buckner's London residence. The Great Fire of
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty six destroyed this grave site, and today it's
Speaker 1: the Bank of England's headquarters. Yeah. That always cracks me up.
Speaker 1: It shows up in almost anything you read where they're like,
Speaker 1: he was buried here, Now it's the Bank of England. Uh.
Speaker 1: Harriet bequeathed his telescopes to his executors and his scientific
Speaker 1: papers to Henry Percy, with a note that they should
Speaker 1: be edited and prepared for publication by a long time acquaintance,
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Torporli. He wanted most of his non scientific personal
Speaker 1: notes related to Raleigh and other deceased persons to be buried.
Speaker 1: While Harriet asked to have his work published after he died,
Speaker 1: he unfortunately hadn't really prepared his research to that end.
Speaker 1: This is just a really big ask and it did
Speaker 1: not really happen. With one exception. This is really a
Speaker 1: pity because he not only had a four decade long career,
Speaker 1: but the mathematicians and scientists who survived him weren't able
Speaker 1: to then build on his work without having access to
Speaker 1: his notes. He had assembled a manuscript for a book
Speaker 1: titled Application of the Analytical Art to Solving Algebraic Equations.
Speaker 1: That book was published ten years after his death and
Speaker 1: introduced the greater than and less than some bulls, as
Speaker 1: well as that long horizontal brace that covers terms that
Speaker 1: are affected by a radical sign the Some histories attribute
Speaker 1: these symbols to Harriet, although others say that these elements
Speaker 1: were inclusions from the editor that prepared the manuscript for publication,
Speaker 1: rather than things that Harriet himself developed. Yeah, he sometimes
Speaker 1: that that book will also be credited with inventing like
Speaker 1: the dot between two things as a multiplication symbol. But
Speaker 1: there's that also, may just be a different way that
Speaker 1: numbers were separated for clarity. Um so maybe maybe not.
Speaker 1: When the Royal Society of London was founded in sixteen
Speaker 1: sixty one of its first initiatives was an effort to
Speaker 1: recover the lost work of Harriet, because again, he was
Speaker 1: known in his lifetime, so people were cognizant of the
Speaker 1: fact that when he had died forty years before that
Speaker 1: they had lost some important research. For seven years, from
Speaker 1: the time that Society received its Royal charter from Charles
Speaker 1: the Second in sixteen sixty two up until sixteen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: the whereabouts of Harriet's notes were investigated. There were a
Speaker 1: lot of inquiries made, but it was a fruitless effort
Speaker 1: and eventually that project was abandoned. At that point it
Speaker 1: was believed that Harriet's work was gone, and that remained
Speaker 1: the belief of the scientific community for more than a century.
Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty four, though, there was a surprise breakthrough
Speaker 1: of sorts. Hungarian born astronomer Franz Xaver Baron von Zack
Speaker 1: had traveled to England to work for the Saxon ambassador
Speaker 1: in London. That was John Maurice, Count of Brule, and
Speaker 1: that happened in seventy three. And while he was at
Speaker 1: Pentworth Castle in Sussex, von Zach's found a number of
Speaker 1: Thomas Harriet's manuscripts at the bottom of a trash pile
Speaker 1: and a stable. Yeah, that property was still owned by
Speaker 1: Henry Percy's descendants. Uh so presumably those papers had just
Speaker 1: been shuffled around for a while and someone who didn't
Speaker 1: know what they were just tossed him aside. And this
Speaker 1: find was of course significant because von Zack saw that
Speaker 1: Harriet's work had put him ahead of other astronomers of
Speaker 1: his time, including Kepler and Galileo, and the Baron parlayed
Speaker 1: his discovery into a tour of Europe where he talked
Speaker 1: about Harriet, but he never really took the work to
Speaker 1: the next level to do an in depth analysis of
Speaker 1: what he had found, like he never published a paper
Speaker 1: on it, and the excitement over finding these these papers
Speaker 1: in manuscripts died down with no new revelations or write ups,
Speaker 1: and von Zack took a new job working for the
Speaker 1: Royals of sax Gotha in seventy six, and at that
Speaker 1: point he seems to have moved on from his Harriet interest.
Speaker 1: So while other interested parties made some efforts at really
Speaker 1: studying Harriet's work, it was not until the twentieth century
Speaker 1: that the insights he had and the observations he made
Speaker 1: really came into their own. It became the focus of study,
Speaker 1: so much so that there have been numerous Thomas Harriet
Speaker 1: symposia going on since the late nineteen sixties. In July
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, Harriet's lunar drawings were part of an
Speaker 1: exhibit at the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, and
Speaker 1: the lunar maps are cared for by the West Sussex
Speaker 1: Record Office. They keep them pretty much full time though
Speaker 1: they are the property of one of Henry Percy's descendants,
Speaker 1: so we mentioned up at the top of the podcast.
Speaker 1: This episode is part of the Apollo Pod Crawl that
Speaker 1: was organized by the Museum of Flight in Seattle as
Speaker 1: part of their celebration of the first Crude Moon landings
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary. You can check out our show notes for
Speaker 1: links to the other participating podcasts, including the Museum's own
Speaker 1: Flight Deck podcast. I Think We're probably the last episode
Speaker 1: of this pod crawl coming out, so all the others
Speaker 1: should be available by the time we get to this point.
Speaker 1: I think so and hope so um, I mean, I
Speaker 1: hope that's accurate. So, but that is as the of
Speaker 1: the moment we record it. We're still waiting on a
Speaker 1: couple of groups to report in. So uh yeah, but
Speaker 1: those are all going to be super fun to check out.
Speaker 1: If you are into space history, which I know many
Speaker 1: of our listeners are because we always get great responses
Speaker 1: to our space episodes and our discussions of NASA and
Speaker 1: space exploration in astronomy, then you probably want to check
Speaker 1: those out. Yeah. I might make for a fun day
Speaker 1: of just having spacetime. I love it. Um. I have
Speaker 1: two postcards and one of them is going to blow
Speaker 1: Tracy's mind. I'm not even letting her see it. She's
Speaker 1: in the studio with me today, which is not often
Speaker 1: the case since we work separately in different cities. But
Speaker 1: it is from our listener, Kendra, and some of her
Speaker 1: stuff is obscured on her postcard, but the postcard itself
Speaker 1: is spectacular. She writes, I recently listened to your podcast
Speaker 1: about Marie Lawrence Son and I was so surprised to
Speaker 1: hear her work was from the early twentieth century. I
Speaker 1: have recently seen her work in an online forum and
Speaker 1: it honestly would fit in basically amongst beautifully amongst today's
Speaker 1: crowd of insta artists. I agree. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for sharing her awesome background. And then it looks like
Speaker 1: some water damage on the postcard. Here's it's amazing. Kendra
Speaker 1: did a watercolor for the postcard what in the style
Speaker 1: of Marie Lawrencen and it's portraits of us. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: and it's awesome upside down. That's so great. It's really fabulous.
Speaker 1: There's a kitty on it too. There is also her cat.
Speaker 1: That is her cat Dinah, which I wonder if that's
Speaker 1: named after the Dinah in Alice in Wonderland who was
Speaker 1: also a kitty. I love it. It's really really spectacularly fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for sharing your art with us, Kendra,
Speaker 1: because this is just one of those you know we
Speaker 1: talked about on the episode. Art is great. It touches people,
Speaker 1: um and I love it. We also got a really
Speaker 1: really fun cute postcard from Yellowstone National Park, which is
Speaker 1: from our listener Amanda June. She writes, Hello girls, My
Speaker 1: mom and I took a trip to Yellowstone and I
Speaker 1: introduced her to your podcast on the drive. Your podcast
Speaker 1: is one of my favorites and it was a joy
Speaker 1: to get to share it with my mom. That's just
Speaker 1: super sweet, and I love that you are spreading the
Speaker 1: history love. And also again, every time somebody's on a
Speaker 1: trip and they write us a postcard, very touched by
Speaker 1: it because I never have my act together to send
Speaker 1: postcards to people I know and love in my life,
Speaker 1: so it's very meaningful to me that someone would make
Speaker 1: that effort. Yeah. Um, I am not often in this office,
Speaker 1: and one of the things that I have done on
Speaker 1: this trip to this office since I'm never here, I
Speaker 1: don't have my own permanent desk anymore, and so I
Speaker 1: had to go through the things that had been boxed
Speaker 1: up from my desk, and I was just overwhelmed by
Speaker 1: I mean, there were so many uh, postcards and letters
Speaker 1: and little like little trinkets and things that um, I
Speaker 1: had not I had. In some cases I had seen
Speaker 1: them and had put them to the side, and in
Speaker 1: some cases I had not seen them yet. I was
Speaker 1: just totally blown away by all of these things. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much everybody who has sent us all
Speaker 1: of these things over the years. There were a couple
Speaker 1: of things that were things I had put aside from
Speaker 1: like five years ago that I had not looked at
Speaker 1: since then. It's just really incredible and humbling. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 1: an try to remember to put a picture of this,
Speaker 1: uh handpainted postcard on our show page along with our
Speaker 1: our links to the Apollo pod crawl. Uh. If I don't,
Speaker 1: you can bug us on social media and remind me. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can
Speaker 1: do so at History podcast at how Stop works dot com.
Speaker 1: If you would like to bug us on social media
Speaker 1: and go, hey, Holly, you forgot to put that picture
Speaker 1: in there, Uh, that's missed in History is our handle
Speaker 1: pretty much everywhere. You can also visit our homepage, which
Speaker 1: is missed in history dot com, and there every episode
Speaker 1: of the show that has ever been made exists together,
Speaker 1: as well as show notes for any of the episodes
Speaker 1: Tracy and I have worked on together. You can also
Speaker 1: subscribe to the podcast it seems like a cool thing
Speaker 1: to do. You can do that on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever it is that
Speaker 1: you like to listen. Stuff you Missed in History Class
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app. App podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. H