MDDM Ch. 13 Stars and Planets: Uranus

[jbor]

> I'm wondering what Pynchon's source might be for the idea that there was a
> suspicion in 1860-odd that a new planet was about to be discovered, or
> whether it is just speculation on his part. I'm drawn back to the
> description of "the strange mind-to-mind Throb" in The Moon, and Mr
> Blackner's "remarkable intelligence-gathering mirror". (p. 130)

s/b 1760-odd

Trawling around on this I came across the calculations of a geometric
progression in the planetary orbits first posed by Johann Daniel Titius of
Wittenberg in 1766, and published by Johann Elert Bode in 1772, sometimes
called the Bode-Titius Law:

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/bode_titus_relation.html

http://www.arts.richmond.edu/~rubin/pedagogy/131/131notes/131notes_117.html

http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/qadir/q540.html

    The Titius-Bode Rule hypothesized a planet between Mars and Jupiter,
    which turned out to be where the asteroid belt is. It also hypothesized
    a planet out from Saturn, which turned out to be Uranus ...

http://home.earthlink.net/~conklin76/

It was actually Bode who proposed the name Uranus for the new planet.

1766 is still not quite early enough to be fodder for Mr Blackner, the
"Quidnunc" hotelier, and his clientele at The Moon on St Helena, however.
But there is Maskelyne's reference to each star as a "mathematickal Point",
and the universe as some "single gigantick Equation", right after the
reference to Mason as a "Uranian Devotee". (134) I'd say that the impression
Pynchon - or Wicks, perhaps - is trying to give is that the discovery of
Uranus was something which was "in the air" at that time.

best