b. January 22, 1592 and d. October 22, 1655

French philosopher and astronomer. Destined for the Church, he obtained the chairs of philosophy and theology in University of Aix. He was the first disciple of Bacon in France, and a friend of Galileo and Kepler. He was the first to observe the transit of Mercury (1631). The parhelia, the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites, and the magnetic needle afforded him subjects of profound research. He wrote “The Life, Opinions and Morals of Epicurus” (1647); “The Lives of Tycho Brahe and Copernicus” (1654).

By night-fall shaded,
The red lights from the clouds are faded;
Leaving one palest amber line
To mark the last of day’s decline;
And all o’er heaven is that clear blue
The stars so love to wander through.
They’re rising from the silent deep,
Like bright eyes opening after sleep.

—The Lost Pleiad: L. E. L.

I bear a record of thy wondrous power;
Thou stand’st alone and needest not to shine
With borrowed lustre: for the light is thine
Which no man giveth; and, though comets lower
Portentious round thy sphere, thou still art bright;
Though many a satellite about thee fall,
Leaving their stations merged in trackless night,
Yet take not they from that supernal light
Which lives withint thee, sole, and free of all.-

—Washington Allston

b. October 21, 1785 and d. March 6, 1854

American inventor. He built the “Washington” on a plan of his own invention with improvements which made it superior to Fulton’s boat. By using a cam cut-off that he devised he was able to save three-fifths of the fuel. He invented a steam marine battering-ram for harbor defense.

See how yon flaming herald treads
The ridged and rolling waves,
As, crashing o’er their crested heads,
See bows her surly slaves.
With foam before and fire behind,
She rends the clinging sea,
Then flies before the roaring wind,
Beneath her hissing lee.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

As a bird trims herself to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime;
Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.

—Terminus: Emerson

1856—Simple to compound engines; economy, radius and capacity.

1879—Iron to steel hulls; economy and capacity.

1886—Tank steamers built.

1889—Single to twin screws; safety and regularity.

b. October 21, 1833 and d. December 10, 1896

Swedish engineer. Nitro-glycerine remained unapplied to practical uses until 1864, when Nobel began to develop its industrial value. 1866-’67, dynamite and glyoxaline were invented by him, and in 1876 he patented nitrogellation, blasting gelatin, or explosive gelatin. In 1888 he took out a patent for Nobel’s smokeless powder or ballistite. The manufacture of artificial silk attracted his attention, but he attached more importance to his artificial india-rubber, patented in 1893-’94.

How, then? By thinking. “By patient thought,”
said Newton. By earnest thinking. It is this that
brings the Apollo Belvedere from the block of
marble. It is this that sends the locomotive engine
thundering on its conquering way. It is this that
puts the nitro-glycerine through the backbone of
the mountain. Original men are intense thinkers.
Newton was so smitten with “the wild delight of
thinking” that he once took the tip of the forefinger
of his lady-love to put out the fire in his tobacco
pipe. “The brute!” you say; but he was bringing
brutum fulmen from the heavens.

—Originality: Rev. Elias Nason

1833—Sails to wooden paddles; speed and regularity.

1843—Wood to iron hulls; strength and capacity.

1846—The manufacture of high explosives was begun in Germany with gun-cotton.

1850—Paddles to screws; economy and radius.