1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:12,719 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 3 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm tre P P. Wilson. 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: As you may have noticed, particularly lately, I get on 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:22,799 Speaker 1: a kick, I get obsessed with one topic uh and 6 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:27,040 Speaker 1: explore it from multiple angles. That's happening again today. Uh. 7 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:29,640 Speaker 1: We talked about this very recently, but just to recap. 8 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: On July nine, Neil Armstrong took his place in history 9 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: as the first man to step on the lunar surface. 10 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: He was joined by buzz Aldren. The two of them 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: spent several hours walking around on the Moon's surface, collecting 12 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:45,919 Speaker 1: samples and planting that famous flag but pertinent to today's podcast. 13 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,160 Speaker 1: More than three hundred years earlier, a man named John 14 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 1: Wilkins was planning out what he thought it would take 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: for humans to travel to the Moon. Wilkins is interesting 16 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: because he managed to ride out a pretty rocky time 17 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: in England's history quite well, and he was very well 18 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: known in his day. He, for example, appears in the 19 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 1: Diaries of Samuel Peeps Uh. And of course, mankind was 20 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,760 Speaker 1: dreaming about the Moon and other space travel well before 21 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: the sixteen hundreds. But the work that Wilkins did is 22 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: the first documented effort at actually kind of making that 23 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,039 Speaker 1: dream of reality. He's not really ready to make it 24 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,200 Speaker 1: into reality, and we'll talk about why. But if you 25 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: listen to our episode on Thomas Harriet that we did recently, 26 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:27,840 Speaker 1: you know that the early years of the seventeenth century 27 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:31,000 Speaker 1: were really exciting time when it came to looking at 28 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: the Moon. Sixteen o nine was the first time that 29 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: Harriet and Galileo turned their telescopes to Earth's natural satellite, 30 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,280 Speaker 1: and the scientific community was really excited about all of 31 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: the new information that was revealed as a consequence, and 32 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 1: Wilkins kind of came in in that wave of excitement 33 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: and became part of it. John Wilkins was born in 34 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: sixteen fourteen in Northamptonshire and the East Midlands of England, 35 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: so that was just after that huge first push of 36 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:00,880 Speaker 1: discoveries with the Moon through tell Us scopes had been made. 37 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 1: He was born into a family of relative means. His father, 38 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: Walter Wilkins, was a goldsmith with a successful business and 39 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: was a man described as ingenious with a knack for 40 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: understanding anything mechanical and also ceaselessly curious. His mother's side 41 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: of the family was of the gentry, a number of 42 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,959 Speaker 1: clergymen were in it, and her name was Jane Dodd. 43 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,400 Speaker 1: John attended grammar school at Edward Sylvester's in Oxford. When 44 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: he was still just a boy of eleven, his father, 45 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,519 Speaker 1: Walter died that was si and not long after John's mother, 46 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: Jane remarried, this time to a man named Francis Pope. 47 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: Soon John had a little brother, Walter Pope, who would 48 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:42,680 Speaker 1: go on to be a poet and astronomer of renowned 49 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,519 Speaker 1: on his own. After grammar school, John started attending Madeline 50 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 1: Hall in Oxford, and from there he became an ordained 51 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,000 Speaker 1: priest at the Church of England, and six thirty eight 52 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,800 Speaker 1: he moved to the hamlet of Fawsley in Northamptonshire and 53 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: was provided a living by his mother's family. Ring his 54 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: years of school, in which he had learned an advanced degree, 55 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: he had been particularly interested in astronomy, and that interest 56 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:10,120 Speaker 1: continued as one of his pursuits beyond his formal education years. 57 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: But even so he wasn't really discovering anything new. At 58 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,080 Speaker 1: this point. The available telescopic technology had been used to 59 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,040 Speaker 1: see everything possible with regards to the Moon, and it 60 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: wouldn't be until the middle of the century that telescopes 61 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: would get another boost in their capabilities. Besides this, Wilkins 62 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:29,640 Speaker 1: was also occupied with his duties as a vicar and 63 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: working in his other areas of interest and responsibility. He 64 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 1: certainly ran in very intellectual circles, and he and his 65 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: friends and colleagues certainly discussed issues of space and science. 66 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: So while he did love astronomy, it wasn't really his 67 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: life's work by any means. At the age of twenty four, 68 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: Wilkins published The Discovery of a World. It's subtitle was 69 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:55,280 Speaker 1: a Discourse tending to prove that tis probable that there 70 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: may be another habitable world in the Moon, with a 71 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 1: discourse concerning the possibility of a passage thither. Eventually he 72 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: wrote a second edition with a second supplemental book to 73 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: the Discovery of a New World, and that was titled 74 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 1: A Discourse concerning a New Planet, and this two volume 75 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,119 Speaker 1: version was published in sixteen forty, so two years after 76 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,720 Speaker 1: the original. The title page of this second volume features 77 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:22,159 Speaker 1: Copernicus and Galileo facing one another in the foreground, with 78 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,880 Speaker 1: an illustration of the heliocentric planetary system in the background. 79 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: Wilkins name was not initially included as the author of 80 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: the book. No writer was listed in the print, but 81 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:34,280 Speaker 1: I was not terribly uncommon at the time, and it 82 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: was widely known as his work. It wasn't as though 83 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: he was trying to publish anonymously. And the introduction to 84 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,479 Speaker 1: this book he offers the following warnings. Two cautions there 85 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:47,919 Speaker 1: are which I would willingly admonish thee of in the beginning. One, 86 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: that thou shouldst not here look to find any exact, 87 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: accurate treatise, since this discourse was but the fruit of 88 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,359 Speaker 1: some lighter studies, and those two huddled up in a 89 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: short time, being first thought of and finished in the 90 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:04,360 Speaker 1: space of some few weeks. And therefore you cannot, in 91 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,919 Speaker 1: reason expect that it should be so polished as perhaps 92 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,720 Speaker 1: the subject would require, or the leisure of the author 93 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: might have done it. Two, to remember that I promise 94 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: only probable arguments for the proof of this opinion, and 95 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: therefore you must not look that every consequence should be 96 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: of an undeniable dependence, or that the truth of each 97 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: argument should be measured by its necessity. I grant that 98 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: some astronomical appearances may possibly be solved otherwise than here 99 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:36,040 Speaker 1: they are. But the thing I aim at is this 100 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 1: that probably they may so be solved as I have 101 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 1: here set them down, which if it be granted as 102 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: I think it must, then I doubt not. But the 103 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,920 Speaker 1: indifferent reader will find some satisfaction in the main thing 104 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:50,360 Speaker 1: that is to be proved. So he was making it 105 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,279 Speaker 1: really clear right out of the gate. He's just theorizing. Look, 106 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:57,159 Speaker 1: people have spitballing here, don't get too hung up on 107 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:00,440 Speaker 1: those details. I think this is the opposite sit of 108 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,359 Speaker 1: the level of confidence from that voyage manuscript decoding that 109 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: we talked about on on Earth recently that was like 110 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,359 Speaker 1: similarly done in a couple of weeks as part of 111 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: a different thing. Yeah. Yeah, but Wilkins is very Look, 112 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: I'm a minister, I know a lot about science. I'm um, 113 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:20,880 Speaker 1: but I'm just I'm thinking through my thoughts and I'm 114 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:24,839 Speaker 1: bringing you along. But this kind of like slightly more 115 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,600 Speaker 1: casual approach was also probably why this actually ended up 116 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: becoming a really influential publication. He was kind of kicking 117 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: around ideas and working through the logistics of them, and 118 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:36,919 Speaker 1: he was basically showing his work for the reader to 119 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:41,040 Speaker 1: come along with wilkins text helped further promote some of 120 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:45,599 Speaker 1: Galileo's ideas about the Moon, specifically that it was a solid, compacted, 121 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,719 Speaker 1: opacious body and that humans could potentially visit and maybe 122 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:52,599 Speaker 1: even live on it. Wilkins covered a number of other 123 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,599 Speaker 1: topics and the two volume work, though they weren't exactly groundbreaking, 124 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: he bolstered the idea fairly commonly held in scientific unity 125 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,360 Speaker 1: at the time that the Earth wasn't particularly special as 126 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: a planet in the Solar System, but it was one 127 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 1: of many. Yeah, this was a time when there was 128 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 1: a big shift we'll talk a little bit more about 129 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 1: it in in how science and theology, which were closely mixed, 130 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 1: saw the Earth and what it was in relation to 131 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: the cosmos. Uh, And that was all changing really rapidly. 132 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 1: And while these ideas were already pretty commonly accepted in 133 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: the science community, everything he was talking about, it was 134 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: the way that Wilkins wrote about them that really made 135 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 1: his work important. He wrote in a style, as you 136 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: can tell, that was relatively casual compared to most scientific 137 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: work of the day, meaning that the average person could 138 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,160 Speaker 1: read and understand it, and especially because it was illustrated 139 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:46,680 Speaker 1: in a way that was also aimed at readers who 140 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: were not immersed in science. We have talked in previous 141 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: episodes about how a lot of scientists in this era 142 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 1: were polyglots, and that was in part just so they 143 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: could read the work of other scientists who spoke and 144 00:07:57,080 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: wrote in languages other than their own. But here was 145 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: a book that translated everything for the reader. There was 146 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: no knowledge of Latin or Italian required. We'll talk about 147 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: another important aspect of Wilkins's writing in just a moment, 148 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 1: but first we will pause or a sponsor break. We 149 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:23,880 Speaker 1: talked before the break about how part of the appeal 150 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,800 Speaker 1: of Wilkins's work at this point was that it was 151 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,640 Speaker 1: written for the average person to understand. And another tenant 152 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,640 Speaker 1: of Wilkins's work in this writing is change, as in, 153 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:35,720 Speaker 1: he was keenly aware of just how much our knowledge 154 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:38,479 Speaker 1: of the world had changed in just a few decades 155 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: leading up to this writing, and he foresaw that the 156 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:43,800 Speaker 1: same kind of change in what was commonly known to 157 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:48,199 Speaker 1: entirely new ideas was going to continue. Wilkins is pretty 158 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:51,120 Speaker 1: self reflective, and he understands that even though the seventeenth 159 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: century was seeing entire new vistas of science and understanding 160 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,280 Speaker 1: open up, that they were going to seem childish to 161 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:01,560 Speaker 1: later generations. On the e relation of new truths, he 162 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:06,000 Speaker 1: wrote one that a new truth may seem absurd and impossible, 163 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:09,320 Speaker 1: not only to the vulgar, but to those also who 164 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:13,080 Speaker 1: are otherwise wise men and excellent scholars. And hence it 165 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,400 Speaker 1: will follow that every new thing which seems to oppose 166 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 1: common principles is not presently to be rejected, but rather 167 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:24,160 Speaker 1: to be pride into with a diligent inquiry, Since there 168 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: are many things which are yet hid from us and 169 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: reserve for future discovery. Too, that it is not the 170 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: commonness of an opinion that can privilege it. For a truth. 171 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:38,640 Speaker 1: The wrong way is sometime a well beaten path, whereas 172 00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: the right way, especially to hidden truths, may be less 173 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: trodden and more obscure. I sort of love that here, 174 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:49,400 Speaker 1: you too. I also love listeners don't get to hear it, 175 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: but like the slightly atypical spelling of many of these 176 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:57,760 Speaker 1: words is delightful. Yeah, of course it felt to portracy 177 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:04,000 Speaker 1: to read the the uncorrected writing of John Wilkins. I 178 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:06,680 Speaker 1: didn't do that on purpose, so he definitely wanted his 179 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,559 Speaker 1: readers to look at science and particularly what humanity is 180 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: a collective new about the universe with a new eye 181 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: and an open mind. He pointed out the ways that 182 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,679 Speaker 1: the work of Aristotle, which had been groundbreaking in its 183 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: own time, had become outdated and led the reader to 184 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: the idea that knowledge and discovery was an ongoing, living 185 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,280 Speaker 1: thing that was not static, and in a way the 186 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: people of the seventeenth century kind of needed to hear this. 187 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 1: So much of the world's scientific knowledge had been upended, 188 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:38,199 Speaker 1: as we said, in those three decades preceding it, particularly 189 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: not just in astronomy, but in geography and physiology and 190 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:44,400 Speaker 1: other fields, and in this very short period of time. 191 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,719 Speaker 1: So Wilkins was to some degree preparing his readers to 192 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:50,280 Speaker 1: the fact that they were not going to like get 193 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: all the information and settle down, but in fact that 194 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,719 Speaker 1: change was the new normal of the moon as a 195 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: habital place. He wrote, quote, I must needs confess though 196 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:02,160 Speaker 1: I had off been thought with myself that it was 197 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: possible there might be a world in the moon. Yet 198 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: it seems such an uncouth opinion that I never durst 199 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: discover it for fear of being counted singular and ridiculous. 200 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: But afterward, having read Plutarch, galile As, Kepler, and some others, 201 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: and finding many of mine own thoughts confirmed by such 202 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,360 Speaker 1: strong authority, I then concluded that it was not only 203 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:28,280 Speaker 1: possible there might be, but probable that there was another 204 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: habitable world in that planet. So at this point the 205 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: details of the Moon's surface, the craters in the mountains 206 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:36,960 Speaker 1: were things that had really only been part of our 207 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 1: understanding since Galileo and Harriet started looking at the Moon 208 00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 1: about thirty years prior. Prior to that, most people thought 209 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: that it was a pretty smooth body because they saw 210 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:48,960 Speaker 1: it with the naked eye all the time, and while 211 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: it had some color variation, it wasn't perceived as being 212 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:55,720 Speaker 1: particularly textured, and some of that was tied up in 213 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: thinking that today would be seen as very unscientific. British 214 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:03,280 Speaker 1: historian Alan Chapman wrote in a paper about Wilkins and 215 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:07,560 Speaker 1: his work, quote to understand the contemporary power of Wilkins 216 00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 1: arguments that, like those of Galileo before him, one must 217 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:14,679 Speaker 1: remember that the classical universe was not just a physical 218 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:18,280 Speaker 1: but also a moral place. Seemed most obviously in the 219 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:22,640 Speaker 1: juxtaposition between the corrupt, chaotic Earth and the perfect heavens. 220 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: There were theories, for example, that the dark areas of 221 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,200 Speaker 1: the moon were spots that had been tarnessed by light 222 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: reflected up from the Earth. Yeah, Earth was a yucky 223 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: mess and the heavens were beautiful and celestial. But Wilkins 224 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: saw Earth and the heavens as part of one large entity, 225 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: which he considered in its totality to be a divine creation. 226 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:47,479 Speaker 1: And this was in contrast to the ideology of Aristotle 227 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:49,679 Speaker 1: and some of his followers, who saw that there was 228 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:51,920 Speaker 1: a boundary between Earth and the heavens, and that the 229 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:55,400 Speaker 1: same scientific rules did not apply to those two things 230 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:59,440 Speaker 1: in cosmology. It was essentially two different systems in their thinking. 231 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:02,840 Speaker 1: Wilkins's vision of a more holistic view of the universe 232 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: was a departure from what had been believed and taught 233 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: for centuries at that point. All the same matter, and 234 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,560 Speaker 1: that quote, the heavens do not consist of any such 235 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:14,320 Speaker 1: pure matter which can privilege them from the like change 236 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:18,800 Speaker 1: in corruption as these inferior bodies are liable unto was 237 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,199 Speaker 1: a thing that he was a big proponent of. It's 238 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:23,960 Speaker 1: all the same stuff, it's just arrange differently, and he 239 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 1: wanted all of it to be subject to scientific exploration 240 00:13:27,679 --> 00:13:31,200 Speaker 1: and analysis. Wilkins was also a proponent of the idea 241 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: known as a plurality of worlds, and that's that our 242 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:37,160 Speaker 1: world was not the only world out of the vastness 243 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:40,680 Speaker 1: of space, and he believed quote that a plurality of 244 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: worlds doth not contradict any principle of reason or faith. 245 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 1: This led to ideas of other habitable places among the stars, 246 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:50,640 Speaker 1: and today we talk about the probability of life on 247 00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:53,720 Speaker 1: other planets based on the likelihood that some sort of 248 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:57,439 Speaker 1: combination of elements created a hospitable environment similar to the 249 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,240 Speaker 1: ways our planet got lucky. But for Wilkins and his colleagues, 250 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,719 Speaker 1: discussion was often centered around God creating life on other planets, 251 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:07,320 Speaker 1: just as they believed he had on Earth. To talk 252 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:10,079 Speaker 1: about the writing that Wilkins did regarding the Moon, we 253 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:12,199 Speaker 1: have to jump back to the year of his first 254 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:14,559 Speaker 1: one volume edition of his book, The Discovery of a 255 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: World Um that was eight and there was another book 256 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:22,080 Speaker 1: published that same year. This one was fictional and it 257 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: was titled The Man in the Moon, and that story 258 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:27,720 Speaker 1: was written by Francis Godwin, and it told the tale 259 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: of the main character Domingo Gonzalez being carried to the 260 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: Moon by a flock of geese pulling a chariot. He 261 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,760 Speaker 1: was incidentally trying to get to Spain, but accidentally got 262 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 1: the geese when they were doing their natural migration to 263 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:44,200 Speaker 1: the moon. Question Mark Uh. This mode of transit seems 264 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 1: pretty swanky, but obviously completely impossible. But still this idea 265 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:52,120 Speaker 1: really got Wilkins thinking about what it would actually take 266 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,080 Speaker 1: to get a man to the moon, and that line 267 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:57,840 Speaker 1: of thought was part of his supplemental volume. Godwin was 268 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:01,280 Speaker 1: certainly not the first fiction writer to imagine traveling to 269 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: the Moon, but he was working with contemporary knowledge of 270 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,640 Speaker 1: it that previous writers had not had. There were certainly 271 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: other books about moon exploration that stoked the fires of 272 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,520 Speaker 1: Wilkins's imagination as well, including work by Francis Bacon and 273 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: Johannes Kepler, and all of this that culminated in the 274 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: sixty edition of Wilkins's work Uh, in which he stated 275 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: quote that it is possible for some of our posterity 276 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: to find out a conveyance to this other world, and 277 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:31,680 Speaker 1: if there be inhabitants there, to have commerce with them. 278 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,120 Speaker 1: He is open in his writing to the idea that 279 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,880 Speaker 1: we probably can't really imagine what a moon inhabitant might 280 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:41,160 Speaker 1: be though, and his evidence that there probably are some 281 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: sort of inhabitants there is kind of the argument that 282 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:46,840 Speaker 1: he's been laying out in the previous chapters of the book. 283 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: So it's kind of like, look, the Moon has this 284 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:51,320 Speaker 1: property and this property and this property, and I think 285 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,640 Speaker 1: probably maybe God would have put some people there. I 286 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:57,080 Speaker 1: sort of, as I was working on this, really really 287 00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: wish that he could have lived long enough to see 288 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: the Great Moon hoax. But that was two centuries later. 289 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:05,200 Speaker 1: It can be one of our bad uses for a 290 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:08,200 Speaker 1: time machine. We're gonna go pick him up and take 291 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:12,000 Speaker 1: him right John, come with me. I don't ask questions. 292 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: While his ideation on the subject was inspired and bart 293 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: by fantasy, Wilkins was methodical and cataloging the challenges of 294 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:24,560 Speaker 1: space travel. Space travelers would have to carry their needed supplies, 295 00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:27,240 Speaker 1: such as food and water, although he theorized that once 296 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:29,120 Speaker 1: they were out of the pool of Earth, they might 297 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: not need any food, and then there was figuring out 298 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:34,640 Speaker 1: how to breathe while also not freezing to death. Although 299 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 1: he was open to the idea that space might not 300 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:39,400 Speaker 1: be cold at all. But then there was the matter 301 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: of conveyance. So for the vehicle there were of course 302 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,800 Speaker 1: myriad concerns. The weight of it would be a key 303 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: factory in its success, and figuring out how to escape 304 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 1: the Earth's pool was going to be a big issue. 305 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:52,920 Speaker 1: Keep in mind, Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, in which he 306 00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: discusses the theory of gravity, was still almost five decades away. 307 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't published until seven, So Wilkins was onto this 308 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 1: idea of escape velocity, but he didn't really have the 309 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:09,479 Speaker 1: scientific vocabulary to really approach it with the right um 310 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,760 Speaker 1: kind of mindset. And there was also this other matter 311 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,280 Speaker 1: of time and how we were going to keep humans 312 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:17,920 Speaker 1: alive during a journey to the moon, which will cons 313 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,159 Speaker 1: estimate it would take about a hundred and eighty days. 314 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:22,600 Speaker 1: And he had come to that conclusion based on his 315 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:26,959 Speaker 1: knowledge of earthbound travel over long distances, so calculating like 316 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: ships traveling across the ocean, et cetera, led him to 317 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,280 Speaker 1: make some some kind of estimates about that one eight 318 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: day timeline. Wilkins obviously did not solve that problem. In 319 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,879 Speaker 1: sixteen forty he warned us readers, after all that he 320 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: was just dealing in theoreticals, and some of his assertions 321 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:46,320 Speaker 1: were way off base. He thought that Earth was the 322 00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: Moon's moon, just like the Moon was Earth's moon, which 323 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: I think is the thing that I might have thought 324 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: when I was like four. Not trying to disparage him 325 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:56,360 Speaker 1: at all, I'm just saying I understand how you could 326 00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,200 Speaker 1: just come to that conclusion. He thought that the Moon 327 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,160 Speaker 1: had seasons just like the Earth does, and he made 328 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:04,960 Speaker 1: it clear that he didn't think they were exactly alike, 329 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:06,879 Speaker 1: but that the Earth and the Moon were sort of 330 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 1: correspondent to one another. Yeah, he didn't think like that 331 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,480 Speaker 1: autumn on the Moon was the same as autumn on Earth, 332 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:14,840 Speaker 1: but that they had an autumn which was a shift 333 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,000 Speaker 1: from their previous season of summer. Uh. And he was 334 00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:21,920 Speaker 1: also a little dismayed in all of this that humans 335 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,320 Speaker 1: were built in a way that they could not physiologically 336 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,399 Speaker 1: handle travel to the Moon on their own. So that 337 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: was kind of his his wrap up, like, I think 338 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:31,719 Speaker 1: we can do it, I don't know how. Here are 339 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,440 Speaker 1: my thoughts. Uh. So, with his book second edition out 340 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:36,960 Speaker 1: in the world, he continued about his business of being 341 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,639 Speaker 1: a vicar and doing self directed scientific work as his 342 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,560 Speaker 1: time and interest allowed. Coming up next, we will talk 343 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 1: about what else was going on in England in the 344 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: years following the second edition of Wilkins's book Forest. You 345 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: will take a quick break to hear from one of 346 00:18:50,600 --> 00:19:01,840 Speaker 1: our sponsors. In this sixteen forties England was in the 347 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,520 Speaker 1: midst of major upheaval. The reign of King Charles the 348 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,680 Speaker 1: First had been loaded with conflict almost since his coronation 349 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,879 Speaker 1: in sixteen twenty six. He had dissolved the Parliament in 350 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: sixteen twenty nine, setting off eleven years of what is 351 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,520 Speaker 1: referred to as personal rule, and made a series of 352 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,359 Speaker 1: unpopular decisions from there. As usual when we talk about 353 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: such events, this is worthy of a whole episode of 354 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,480 Speaker 1: its own, or even several. And after a series of 355 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,879 Speaker 1: conflicts with Scotland, known as the Bishop's Wars, England became 356 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: embroiled in civil war in sixteen forty two, fought between 357 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:37,160 Speaker 1: Charles the First, Royalist supporters and the Parliamentarians. Uh. This 358 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,400 Speaker 1: is again a very simplified version of this whole thing. 359 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: That fighting continued in various different battles, and you'll sometimes 360 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,280 Speaker 1: see it listed out as even different wars right up 361 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: into sixteen fifty two. One of the personal impacts to 362 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:50,919 Speaker 1: Wilkins was that the Anglican Church in which he was 363 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,400 Speaker 1: a minister was abolished. But he came through this very 364 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: tumultuous time in history and pretty good shape. Although Wilkins 365 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:00,920 Speaker 1: had been associated with the royal family and had even 366 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,840 Speaker 1: been a chaplain to Charles the first nephew, and though 367 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: his position as an Anglican vicar was not a thing anymore, 368 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,200 Speaker 1: he was a moderate and amiable and good with people, 369 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,359 Speaker 1: and in his scientific circles his colleagues were aligned with 370 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:17,400 Speaker 1: either side of the much larger conflict, as well as 371 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,600 Speaker 1: having other ideological backgrounds, but their discussions of their work 372 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:24,320 Speaker 1: and the theories of the day really seemed to supersede 373 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,240 Speaker 1: all of their other loyalties. The Oxford Philosophical Club, as 374 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:30,639 Speaker 1: their group came to be known, met in both Oxford 375 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:34,000 Speaker 1: and London. Yeah, this was a very influential group in 376 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:37,560 Speaker 1: terms of like where science went from there. Uh And 377 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:40,840 Speaker 1: in sixty eight he was made warden of Wadham College, 378 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: and this appointment was done by the Parliamentary Commissioners. But 379 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 1: Wilkins remained able to walk that line between parliamentarians and 380 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,159 Speaker 1: royalists with a lot of grace as we said, he 381 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,480 Speaker 1: got along kind of with everybody. Uh, and a lot 382 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,200 Speaker 1: of royalist families sent their sons to the school while 383 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: Wilkins was its head. So while he hadn't abandoned his 384 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,760 Speaker 1: thoughts on flight, it was is another eight years before 385 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,879 Speaker 1: he got back to writing about it. In six the 386 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,679 Speaker 1: same year of his appointment at Wadham, he published a 387 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 1: new book which was titled Mathematical Magic, or the Wonders 388 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:15,120 Speaker 1: that May be Performed by Mechanical Geometry. And in this 389 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: work he got a lot more detailed about exactly how 390 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: one might attain flight. We should mention here that the 391 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: use of the word magic isn't really what we might 392 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: associate with it today, but more a descriptor of the 393 00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 1: marvel of science. Yeah, there was absolutely no actual like 394 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: magical element to this. He didn't think there were incantations involved. 395 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,800 Speaker 1: He just thought that learning about mechanics was a magical experience, 396 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,520 Speaker 1: and he wrote about all kinds of mechanisms in this book, 397 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: Pulleys and springs and levers. The entire first section of 398 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,400 Speaker 1: the work is dedicated to examining the physics of these 399 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:52,959 Speaker 1: and other devices that formed the sort of building blocks 400 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:56,720 Speaker 1: of larger machines, and like his previous writing, he doesn't 401 00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 1: stick strictly to scientific or known entities. Here, many of 402 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,679 Speaker 1: his ideas are theoretical, and he owns that uh. He 403 00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:06,159 Speaker 1: suggests a way to harness the heat, for example, that 404 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: rises through a chimney, so that you can then turn 405 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,080 Speaker 1: a spit with it so that the meat that's roasting 406 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: on the fire below is cooked evenly. This sounds fairly 407 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,880 Speaker 1: great to me. Or perhaps in his estimation, one could 408 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,199 Speaker 1: rig a series of gears in such a way that 409 00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,080 Speaker 1: a simple puff of breath might pull a tree up 410 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,840 Speaker 1: from the roots. As with his previous writing, Wilkins builds 411 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,760 Speaker 1: his case very slowly. Throughout the book. He puts forth 412 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,640 Speaker 1: all these mechanical possibilities to make the case that if 413 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:36,320 Speaker 1: humans think creatively and harness the mechanisms at our disposal, 414 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 1: couldn't we build machines that could fly and eventually leave 415 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: the planet. All this theorizing culminates in the idea of 416 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:45,879 Speaker 1: a flying chariot, and Wilkins's approach is that if we 417 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:47,960 Speaker 1: can figure out how to fly around from place to 418 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,400 Speaker 1: place here on planet Earth, it will then be a 419 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,000 Speaker 1: very short jump to figure out how to fly into space. 420 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,840 Speaker 1: I love his optimism so much. Um. But he doesn't, 421 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: of course, have a specific version of the flying chariot 422 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:04,000 Speaker 1: in mind. He mentions various potential features it could have, 423 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,400 Speaker 1: but aside from thinking that it probably might need gears 424 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:11,159 Speaker 1: and wings and springs, it's pretty vague. He offers up 425 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,680 Speaker 1: some some theoretical pictures, but they're not really anything that 426 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,080 Speaker 1: could get to space. It starts to read a little 427 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,520 Speaker 1: bit like a theoretical baker bringing you a bunch of 428 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:21,920 Speaker 1: ingredients and telling you what those ingredients do, and then 429 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: concluding with make a cake. So he clearly believed it 430 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,560 Speaker 1: was all possible, and he really wanted humanity to make 431 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 1: spaceflight a real thing so that we could go meet 432 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:34,840 Speaker 1: the moon people and maybe trade with them. There are 433 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:38,640 Speaker 1: some notes written by wilkins protege Robert Hook that in 434 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,399 Speaker 1: the early sixteen fifties the two men tested out some 435 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,400 Speaker 1: kind of flying machine, although details on that one are scarce. Yeah, 436 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,520 Speaker 1: that's literally the only thing we know about him doing 437 00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:51,320 Speaker 1: anything else in this arena. In sixteen fifty six, Wilkins 438 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 1: married Rabina French, the widowed sister of Oliver Cromwell, and 439 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: three years later, in sixteen fifty nine, Wilkins moved from 440 00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:01,160 Speaker 1: Wadham to a more prestigious position as Master of Trinity 441 00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:04,159 Speaker 1: College that was thanks to the influence of his famous 442 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,640 Speaker 1: brother in law, but the country's fortunes made that appointment 443 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,560 Speaker 1: a very short stay. The English monarchy was restored in 444 00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: sixteen sixty, less than a year after his time at 445 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,200 Speaker 1: Trinity began, and Wilkins, who had also been an advisor 446 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:19,879 Speaker 1: to Oliver Cromwell, was removed from the post. Sixteen sixty 447 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:23,639 Speaker 1: wasn't all bad for John Wilkins, though, His Oxford Club 448 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,800 Speaker 1: received a royal decree from Charles the Second, England's new king, 449 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:31,200 Speaker 1: and became the Royal Society for Promoting Natural Knowledge. This group, 450 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,360 Speaker 1: which had royal title but not funding, was the proto 451 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:38,440 Speaker 1: organization for what would eventually become the Royal Astronomical Society. 452 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,720 Speaker 1: The Church of England was also restored, and he was 453 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,120 Speaker 1: once again an influential figure within it, and Wilkins rose 454 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,520 Speaker 1: through the ranks of the church, eventually becoming Bishop of 455 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,439 Speaker 1: Chester in sixteen sixty eight, and that same year he 456 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,479 Speaker 1: published another work titled An Essay Towards a Real Character 457 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,040 Speaker 1: and a Philosophical Language, and Wilkins's opening note to the 458 00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,159 Speaker 1: reader states, it may perhaps be expected of some that 459 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,240 Speaker 1: I should give an account of my engaging in a 460 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,320 Speaker 1: work of this nature, so unsuitable to my calling in business. 461 00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: In the text, he proposed that the development of universal 462 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,600 Speaker 1: language would really simplify things, and also that quote the 463 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,359 Speaker 1: several nations of the world do not more differ in 464 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,320 Speaker 1: their languages than the various kinds and proportions of these measures. 465 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:22,360 Speaker 1: He wanted there to be a consistent system of measurement 466 00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:26,320 Speaker 1: for the entire globe as well. While Wilkins wrote many 467 00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:30,120 Speaker 1: other works on subjects ranging from cryptography to prayer, it's 468 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:33,080 Speaker 1: the sixteen sixty eight work, along with his two volumes 469 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,080 Speaker 1: on the subject of the Moon and the Potential to 470 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,919 Speaker 1: get There, that are his most well known today. In 471 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 1: sixteen seventy two, John Wilkins dined. He was fifty eight, 472 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:43,560 Speaker 1: and he was buried at St. Lawrence Jewry, where he 473 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,520 Speaker 1: had once been a vicar. He's so interesting because I 474 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:49,200 Speaker 1: I don't think many people realize that there is a 475 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: sixteen hundred minister going we need a space program. You've 476 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,440 Speaker 1: got I can only deal with like the setup of ideas. 477 00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:58,800 Speaker 1: But somebody else is gonna have to work out the details. 478 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, go to space. Yeah. Do you 479 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,199 Speaker 1: have listener mail also? I do. This listener mail is 480 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:12,440 Speaker 1: from our listener um, Judy, and she writes, hello all, 481 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,320 Speaker 1: it was strange to hear the Klondike Big Inch promotion 482 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,959 Speaker 1: as history. We just reran that as one of our 483 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,200 Speaker 1: classic episodes, she wrote. We all watched Sergeant Preston of 484 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 1: the Yukon. I watched because of his dog King, and 485 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: we all ate Quaker cereal to get the deeds to 486 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,040 Speaker 1: the Klondike. But we had a plan. We joined forces 487 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 1: and collected all our deeds, figuring we could get enough 488 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,040 Speaker 1: land to build a house and live there. And as 489 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,840 Speaker 1: a group we collected over two hundred deeds. And then 490 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:38,960 Speaker 1: my mother broke our hearts by putting down a piece 491 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:41,080 Speaker 1: of paper that would be the size of our estate. 492 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 1: After all of our collecting, there was barely enough room 493 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:46,680 Speaker 1: for two of us to sit. I think we learned 494 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,919 Speaker 1: to read the fine print that day. Thanks for all 495 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,720 Speaker 1: you do with the podcast and I love the humor 496 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,159 Speaker 1: you an. She says, I have a request, but I 497 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:55,760 Speaker 1: have no idea if you could work it into your 498 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,159 Speaker 1: podcast or go on someone else's podcast to do it. 499 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 1: I'm really curious about how you two got to where 500 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,720 Speaker 1: you are, your career path and a bit of your 501 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,360 Speaker 1: personal path. I volunteer with kids at the Y as 502 00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,840 Speaker 1: part of intergenerational programs, and a number of them are 503 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,520 Speaker 1: interested in podcasts and social media, and I like to 504 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,679 Speaker 1: bring them career slash life stories from people doing those jobs. 505 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,960 Speaker 1: Maybe do a podcast of women on radio. In the podcast, 506 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:19,439 Speaker 1: she writes, In any case, thanks for what you do. 507 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,720 Speaker 1: Know that your role models for the younger set and 508 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,000 Speaker 1: are contributing to the older set. As I learned about 509 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: podcasting to best regards, Judy, Judy, that's so sweet. Um. 510 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:29,920 Speaker 1: The brief version is that Tracy and I both were 511 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: working at house to works the informational site, Tracy as 512 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: site director and me as a copy editor. I was 513 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:38,119 Speaker 1: the tech editor, and then our boss heard us at 514 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:40,399 Speaker 1: a party being kind of snarky and thought we were 515 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,520 Speaker 1: funny and thought we should be podcasting. Literally how it 516 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:48,480 Speaker 1: started for us. Um. So, so there are many paths, 517 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,280 Speaker 1: and now I feel like the great thing that I'm 518 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,639 Speaker 1: always sort of preaching about podcasting is that if you 519 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,159 Speaker 1: have a smartphone in your pocket, you have all the 520 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,000 Speaker 1: technology you need to start a podcast. It will maybe 521 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,360 Speaker 1: not be as um produced and smooth as a professional 522 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 1: podcast or as someone with um you know, extra equipment 523 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:08,760 Speaker 1: that they can afford to have in their home. But 524 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: it is easy enough to do it, uh and all. 525 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 1: It seems like a lot of different platforms are making 526 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:17,600 Speaker 1: it easier than ever. So really you have the technology 527 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:21,160 Speaker 1: right now, which I love. Everybody's got stories to tell, 528 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:23,159 Speaker 1: Go out and tell them. Um. If you would like 529 00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:24,960 Speaker 1: to write to us, you can do so at History 530 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 1: podcast at how s to works dot com. You can 531 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: also find us everywhere on social media as Missed in 532 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,640 Speaker 1: History and Missed in History dot Com is the website 533 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,040 Speaker 1: for our show. You would like to subscribe to the show, 534 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:36,919 Speaker 1: we would like you to do so as well. You 535 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,200 Speaker 1: can do that on Apple Podcasts, on the I Heart 536 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: Radio app, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Stuff you 537 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,280 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class is a production of I Heart 538 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,680 Speaker 1: Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, 539 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,760 Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 540 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:57,280 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.