The Royal Society of London
In London, various groups studied experimental philosophy during the Civil War (1642-49). One group of about ten men who gathered around the mathematician John Wallis and John Wilkins began to meet weekly in 1645 to discuss what they called the “New Philosophy” or the “Experimental Philosophy,” including such topics as physics, anatomy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, statics, magnetism, chemistry, mechanics, and natural experiments. They regarded Galileo and Bacon as the chief authorities of the New Philosophy.
Sometimes they met at Gresham College, originally the residence of the merchant banker Sir Thomas Gresham. It was transformed into a place of public instruction in 1598. Gresham’s bequest endowed seven professorships, who gave lectures on topics of natural philosophy and its application to practical problems. For example, Henry Briggs, the Professor of Geometry until 1620, lectured on practical uses of geometry in business and navigation. He refined and popularized his friend John Napier’s invention of logarithms, providing tables of logarithms to promote new ways of calculating in astronomy and navigation. Briggs became the first Savilian Professor of Geometry, in a new chair endowed by Sir Henry Savile to improve the poor state of mathematical education in England.
After 1649, other men of Gresham, including Wilkins and Wallis, were appointed to Oxford. Wallis became the third Savilian Professor of Geometry. Wilkins became Warden of Wadham College, and there he had a laboratory for chemical experimentation, an active meeting site for philosophers, including Wren. On Oxford’s High Street, next to University College, were a number of houses of apothecaries. There Robert Boyle had a house and laboratory from 1655-68. Just down the street was the site of England’s first coffeehouse (1651), where gentlemen began to gather to discuss the matters of the day over coffee, chocolate, or wine. Boyle’s “Chemical Club,” including Hooke and Wren, met just a few doors from his house in a new coffeehouse opened in 1655 by Tillyard, an apothecary.
With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, they dispersed, most of them relocating in London. They formed a group of some 30 men actively interested in science and well-known to each other, including Wallis, Wilkins, Robert Boyle, Isaac Barrow, Christiaan Huygens, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, and Robert Moray. After a lecture at Gresham College, they decided to organize themselves formally and by 1662 had become officially the Royal Society of London. Although they obtained a Royal charter, actual financial support from the king was minimal and it was more of a self-governing institution with subscription from its 150 members. For a while, membership carried high social status; the early Presidents of the Royal Society were frequently titled (Viscounts, Earls, etc.) or knighted. Even after 1690, when the social popularity faded, membership stayed over 100.
The illustration is the frontispiece from Sprat’s History of the Royal Society (1667), shows the image they wished to present. In a combination of symbolism both modern and classical, King Charles II is being crowned with fame as he is attended by Lord Brouncker, first president of the Society, on the left and by Francis Bacon, on the right. This is allegorical — by this time Bacon was dead, but his image as the founder of the new philosophy was very much alive. The background shows various instruments and inventions of interest to the society, including one of Boyle’s air pumps.
The Royal Society provided promotion of the social and intellectual value of the new natural philosophy. It also served as a site and source of patronage for experimental work, through members’ work, their patronage of others, and through the offering of prizes for solving problems. Meeting and corresponding regularly, the members also functioned as a group bringing coherence to research interests, ways of working, and experimental techniques and practices.
Publication of the Philosophical Transactions began in 1665. These natural philosophers were gentlemen, bringing the virtues and values of their class to their scientific practice. In the Transactions they were bringing knowledge into public. Even more, they were using public demonstration as a part of producing knowledge. Their reportage was honest and empirical, emphasizing the experiment rather than philosophical argument. It was also separated from political and religious issues. The experiment was given in a detailed narrative of what they built, did, and what happened. In the presentation, one could witness the knowledge for oneself — so the literary form of empirical reportage and naturalistic illustration, was designed to impress with its validity. The narrative of the experiment made the knowledge repeatable, empirical, and standardized.
This issue from 1685 of the Phil. Trans. shows the continued range of subjects that interested members. It has articles on phenomena of freezing water, medical (“physic”) observations, some observations of a beetle (Cicindela, or tiger beetle), details about a siphon apparatus, a new method of stone-cutting, experimental results on the design of coach wheels, and a report of an oddity found in the heart of an ox. This was a typical mixture of the observational, practical, experimental, and wondrous knowledge they sought and promoted.
