Invention Timeline - Louis Bertrand Castel, a Jesuit Mathematician and Philosopher; Inventor of the Instrument of an Instrument Called the Ocular Harpsichord
b. November 11, 1668 and d. January 11, 1757
A Jesuit; eminent as a mathematician and philosopher. His principal works are “A Treatise on Universal Gravity”; “Universal Mathematics.” He was the inventor of an instrument called the Ocular Harpsichord, intended to affect the eye by colors in the same manner that the ear is affected by sound.
But in his silent chamber the thoughtful sage is projecting
Magical circles, and steals e’en on the spirit that forms,
Proves the force of the matter, the hatred and loves of the
magnet,
Follows the tune through the air, follows through ether the
ray,
Seeks the familiar law in chance’s miracles dreaded,
Looks for the ne’er-changing pole in the phenomena’s flight.
—The Walk: Schiller
There’s music in all things, if men had ears
[eyes].
—Byron
Music requires, indeed, a code of rules just as
poesy requires a system of versification.
—Thibaut
1686—Newton published his “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” describing his theories of force, action and reaction; his conception of mass; his explanation of gravity, and his formulation of the principles of the parallelogram of forces.
