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Archive of old Ponderables by Sparky

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

Baroque Cycle: Book One: Quicksilver:

Chapter One: Boston Common: Subhead: Enoch in Boston

Book opens with Enoch Root observing a hanging of a witch by Jack Ketch & he worries about being thought a witch himself. A preacher (not indentified as a Waterhouse) takes advantage of a cold wind as eight-year old Ben spies Enoch, who is thinking of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz ...

People mentioned or seen as of page 10.

  1. Quicksilver aka Mercury - Cover; and as symbol on page 1.

  2. Enoch Root - Pg. 3 – he thinks he cuts a weird figure -

A. thinks of Newton’s temperature scale versus

B. Herr Farhrenheit’s

  1. Leibniz’s revision of Cartesian — the Ordinate — is pondered.

  2. Captain van Hoek is looked for, but not seen

  3. Ben Franklin - Pg. 6 – he’s a youth grown big on corn & cotton [1]

  4. King Carlos the Sufferer

  5. William and Mary

  6. Archbishop Laud - beheaded

  7. Oliver Cromwell

  8. King Charles I - beheaded

Terms and Concepts pondered:

Boston’s Necropolis

Staff of Life

The Asiento (the slave trade) – which Barkers are opposed to[2]

The Glorious Revolution – 25 years prior

The English Civil War

The Restoration

Barkers - as this universe's Quakers

Footnotes:

  1. As Ben reckons Enoch talks like a schoolmaster, the stage is set for part one of a history lesson: Josiah Franklin fled England due to persecution; Puritan Josiah Franklin's father-in-law fled England because of Archbishop Laud. Enoch tells Ben of Drake Waterhouse without surrendering the family name of the man he's come to America for ...

  2. The Treaties of Utrecht (April 11, 1713) were signed in Utrecht , a city of the United Provinces. Along with the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden, this concluded the War of the Spanish Succession (as well as Queen Anne's War).

The Treaties of Utrecht confirmed Philip V as the king of Spain, provided that Spain and France remain separate. The Spanish Netherlands, Milan, and Naples were granted to Austria. England was granted possession of the Hudson Bay Territory, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. France and the Holy Roman Empire would not settle their differences until 1714, and Spain and Portugal did not cease hostilities until 1715.

The main provisions of the treaties confirmed that Louis XIV's grandson Philip V would remain on the throne of Spain, and retain Spain's new world colonies. Many of Spain's other territories were partitioned out among the allied powers. The Emperor received the Spanish Netherlands, the Duchy of Milan, Naples, and Sardinia. The Duke of Savoy received Sicily and some strips of land in Lombardy. The British received Gibraltar and Minorca, which they had captured during the war.

There were also some colonial provisions pertaining to North America: France recognized British control of the Hudson Bay Territory and Newfoundland and ceded Acadia to the British. France retained Cape Breton Island, the St. Lawrence Islands, and fishing rights off of Newfoundland.

Links:

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaties_of_Utrecht

Subhead 2: The Charlestown Ferry

-- starts middle of page 10

Enoch considers young Ben dangerous (hopefully in a good way).

People mentioned or seen as of page 19

  1. Ferryman

  2. Sir Isaac ‘s newly minted coinage not welcome

A. “Hypothesis of Vortices” 3. Captain van Hoek & the Minerva not sighted until page 12; action-at-a-distance wills acknowledgement

  1. Unknown Barker abolitionist

  2. Unknown Angolan ferry Slave

  3. Non-paying Dues member of the Royal Society in New York

  4. Pear-shaped Harvard Don

  5. Harvard professors[1]

  6. Queen Anne talked about as already dead.

  7. The Hanover King George I of England expected by 1714

Terms and Concepts pondered:

Conic sections

Daniel Waterhouse considered a ‘doctor of cranks’ by snide scholars in Harvard[2]

Slave Riot in New York[3]

“Natural Philosophy”

The Royal Society

Sir Isaac’s Shit List – specifically staying off it![4]

Footnotes:

  1. Though they seem up on the Leibniz v.Newton calculus fervor. Harvard is on the the biggest cowpath in ‘Newtowne.’

  2. Daniel is engineering a “logic mill”

  3. Brief timeline of New York:

1702 Lord Edward Hyde Cornbury became governor.

1702-1713 Queen Anne’s War, 2nd of the French & Indian wars, fought mainly in New England.

1708 Lord John Lovelace became governor.

1709 Richard Ingoldsby became acting governor.

1710 Escaping religious oppression and war -- a group of 2000 Germans arrived in New York.

1710 Gerardus Beckman became acting governor.

1710 Robert Hunter became governor.

1712 A slave rebellion occurred.

  1. I guess EVERYONE by now knows what a snit he can throw.

Link:

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_I_of_Great_Britain

Subhead 3: Newtowne

-- begins 1/5th from the top of page 19

Enoch and Ben encounter Daniel Waterhouse's son Godfrey. Enoch gives his 2nd lesson in history. Mentioning Clarke the apothecary gets Enoch describing various alchemists. When Godfrey states alchemy was "criminal nincompoopery," Enoch further explains, "to get to the new discipline of science[1] the Natural Philosophers had to start with Alchemy. He mentions a weekly Experimental Philosophical Clubb.

People seen or mentioned as of page 23.

Clarke the apothecary

King Louis the XIV

Francis Bacon

Galileo Galilei

Rene Descartes

John Comstock

Thomas More Anglesey

John Wilkins who married Cromwell's sister, and authored Cryptonomicon

Christopher Wren

Robert Boyle

Robert Hooke

Terms and Concepts pondered:

  1. Anointing the French King with 1000 year old angelbalm at his coronation in 1654

  2. Cromwell's New Model Army

  3. French salt smugglers plying their trade during the height of war

Footnotes:

  1. This new science needed a Christiaan Huygens to describe the new vocabulary needed.