Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Up, and to the office, where sat all the morning, and at noon home and heard that the last night Colonel Middleton’s wife died, a woman I never saw since she come hither, having never been within their house since. Home at noon to dinner, and thence to work all the afternoon with great pleasure, and did bring my business to a very little compass in my day book, which is a mighty pleasure, and so home to supper and get my wife to read to me, and then to bed.
Temperature: 4°C / 39°F (Feb 1669 avg.)
The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online
Feb. 11. The Curator Absent a Comitte appointed for Expts. [which neuer did any thing]
The operator [ http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/12991.php ] orderd to speak to Mr Hooke that the new great microscope of Mr Coxes making be brought to the Society the next meeting —
about plyable wax. minerall waters
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Hooke/hooke_folio.php?id=74&option=both
Conceded this Royal Society meeting reminds of Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and The Carpenter”
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”
http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html
(See the published minutes:) “Mr. Hoskyns produced a new kind of sealing-wax,, soft and tough, not sticking, and when burnt at a candle, and dropt on paper, growing hard, like Spanish; wax, and taking the impression as well as that wax. Some of the members con? jectured, that it was made up of lacca mingled and wrought with some gum or; other, perhaps gum tragacanth, or the like.
“The amanuensis produced some of the water, brought out of Sussex near Rye, said to be very medicinal, which formerly had been mentioned in the society. The water being in a wooden vessel, it was desired,, that some of it might be sent for in glass-bottles, well stopt; and that in the mean time the Journal be searched, to find out upon what account it was formerly commended in the society. [&c.]
http://books.google.com/books?id=lWEVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&dq=The+operator+was+ordered+to+speak+to+Mr.+Hooke,+that+the+new+great+microscope+of+Mr.+Christopher+Cock%27s+making+be+brought+to+the+society+at+the+next:+meeting.&source=bl&ots=-H5jAEwJJg&sig=c_-V81jsyfaTiNsu1FkucwslXsk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=owo4T6TMDsmztwfsstHjAw&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20operator%20was%20ordered%20to%20speak%20to%20Mr.%20Hooke%2C%20that%20the%20new%20great%20microscope%20of%20Mr.%20Christopher%20Cock%27s%20making%20be%20brought%20to%20the%20society%20at%20the%20next%3A%20meeting.&f=false