MDMD(2): Notes and Questions

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

David Casseres writes:
> When I read _Longitude_ it struck me as the struggle between Science and 
> Technology, as we now call them.  By Maskelyne's time the astronomers 
> were plainly more interested in what they were learning about the heavens 
> through their observations than in the application of their catalogs to 
> navigation.  And arguably, Harrison and the other watchmakers were at 
> least as interested in the exercise of their art for its own sake as they 
> were in longitude, though of course the prize money meant a lot to them.  
> The Royal Society got blindsided; having invested heavily in the 
> astronomers, they were so unprepared for Harrison's triumph that they 
> managed to avoid for years giving him the money he had so obviously 
> earned.

*One* of the oppositions, certainly. But what about e.g. the
opposition between an aristocratic society and a meritocratic one?
Couldn't have some grubby, johnny-come-lately engineer lording it over
the Royal Soc. And also perhaps the opposition between Faith and
Reason. Reason should suggest that Harrison's chronometer was an
adequate solution, but faith in Divine Purpose suggested that there
was an `exact' solution to be found in the stars, should we only be
able to unravel it (cf Mason's flight of fancy on arriving at
Butterbag Castle). Mason & Dixon - or rather Mason, and probably not
Dixon, really is out on a grail quest, like all the other astronomers
(and like so many scientists - he scoffs, an unrepentant and grubby
engineer).


Andrew Dinn
-----------
We drank the blood of our enemies.
The blood of our friends, we cherished.