timelinescience - 1601 to 1650

1601 to 1650

Setting the scene

The world is beginning to change.

At the start of this period Shakespeare is still writing plays on a regular basis, until his death in 1616.

In 1603 Elizabeth I dies and James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England, keeping the Protestants on the throne.

In 1611 the King James Bible is published, which will still be in use in the 21st century.

In 1615 William Baffin gets to within 800 miles of the North Pole - no one will get closer than this until the 19th century.

In 1616 Pocahontas, the daughter of Native American Chief Powhatan, arrives in London, having helped to keep the peace between the Native Americans and early settlers. Waiting to sail back to America she becomes ill with smallpox and dies.

In science Francis Bacon puts forward the idea that experimentation is the way forward for scientists. Sadly when he tries an experiment of his own - stuffing a chicken with snow to see if it decays more slowly - he catches a chill which ultimately leads to his death in 1628!

Elsewhere this is a time of great conflict for science. During the 17th century Galileo is in conflict with the Catholic Church for his support for Copernicus's idea of a solar system with the Earth moving around the Sun. There are great battles with the Pope and Galileo is kept under house arrest.

Back in England in 1642 the civil war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers begins.

In 1643 Louis XIV becomes King of France, the Ming dynasty is overthrown in China and in 1649 Charles I of England is beheaded by Oliver Cromwell.

The science

1602	Vincenzio Casarido discovers barium sulphide.
1604	Johannes Kepler describes how the eye focuses light and also shows that the brightness (intensity) of light decreases as distance² from its source.
1608	The Dutch scientist Hans Lippershey invents the telescope.
1609	Galileo hears of Lippershey's telescope and builds his own version. He eventually achieves a magnification of about 30x, and uses it to observe mountains on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus.
1611	Galileo, Thomas Harriot, Johannes Fabricius and Christoph Scheiner all claim to have seen sunspots on the surface of the Sun. Galileo says he first saw them three years earlier but did not publish anything, thinking that they were the planet Mercury passing in front of the Sun.
1614	The first recorded measurements of changes in weight, pulse and temperature are made by Sanctorius Sanctorius, taken from his own body using a very primitive thermometer.
1620	Cornelius Drebbel designs a submarine powered by rowers which carries 24 people along 5m below the surface of the Thames. Oxygen to support the people inside the craft may have been supplied from saltpetre (sodium nitrate) in a secret process invented by Drebbel.
1623	William Schickardt builds the first calculating machine from wood.
1628	William Harvey describes his discovery of the circulation of the blood, something that has been known in the Middle East and China for centuries.
1632	Galileo publishes a book in which three people debate the nature of the heavens. These people are someone who believes the Copernican theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun, someone who does not believe this idea, and a commentator. Christoph Scheiner is still smarting from his dispute with Galileo over the discovery of sunspots, and convinces the pope that Galileo's book portrays him as the anti-Copernican, making him look stupid. Galileo will be summoned to appear before the Inquisition in 1633, and will say that he no longer believes the ideas of Copernicus.
1637	René Descartes describes his theory of the refraction of light, and also publishes an explanation for rainbows and cloud formation.
1638	Galileo publishes work in which he discusses the laws of motion and friction, updating and correcting the ideas of Aristotle. Although Aristotle's ideas date from the 4th century BC, they had survived unchallenged until this time.
1641	Galileo's son designs a pendulum clock using his father's ideas.
1643	Torricelli makes the first barometer using mercury in a sealed glass column - he also creates the first vacuum known to science when he inverts the tube of mercury over a dish of mercury and the level drops.
1649	The French philosopher Pierre Gassendi publishes a book about the work of the Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, setting out the idea that matter is made up of atoms.
1650	The German scientist Otto von Guericke perfects an air pump which he uses to create vacuums. In the following years he sets up public demonstrations, including the famous Magdeburg hemispheres. These are held together by a vacuum and teams of horses cannot pull them apart, to the astonishment of all! His work on vacuums continues for many years.