Chapter 33: 327-340
Contents
Page 327
Page 328
In the Summer
this puts the section from Page 327 to 330 as a flashforward to some summer in the future. In the Journal there is a meeting of the commissioners at Christiana Bridge to recognize M&Ds work on the Tangent Line on November 21-25, 1764. I wouldn't call November Summer, though.
Page 329
"A sweetness of immorality and corruption."
This conspiratorial talking about sugar boycotts makes me think that the events of these pages are happening after the Sugar Act of April 5, 1764.
Page 330
Sun, January 8, 1764
from the journal: "Fixed on the house of Mr. John Harland's (about 31 miles West of Philadelphia) to bring our instruments to."
However, it appears that they actually returned to Philidelphia on the 9th to get the observatory and tools and then returned to the Harlands on the 14th where they "set up the sector in his Garden (inclosed in a tent), and in the Evening brought the Instruments into the Meridian, and took the following observations..."
Page 333
"By February..." February 28th, 1764
"In March a Company of Axmen...clear a Visto..." March 17- April 12, 1764
Page 334
Tangent Line
diagram
"Alexander Bryant"
listed as Alexander Bryan in the Journal and all historical records.
By June...they are instructed to proceed...
They set out on June 13, 1764.
page 335
...centered upon the Spire of the Court House in New Castle...
Courthouse
locationphoto
336
Fermat's Last Theorem
In 1636, Fermat claimed--but never offered--a clever proof to a seemingly obvious math theorem. "The fact that the problem's statement is understandable by schoolchildren makes it all the more frustrating, and it has probably generated more incorrect proofs than any other problem in the history of mathematics. No correct proof was found for 357 years, when a proof was finally published by Andrew Wiles in 1994" -- Wikipedia.
Finial upon something of Mr. Chippendale's
Finial - "Forming the crown or completion; crowning" (ODE)
Mr. Chippendale: Thomas Chippendale (ca June 5, 1718 - November 1779) (Wikipedia), a legendary "London cabinet-maker and furniture designer," whose designs--to this untrained poster's eyes--appear extraordinarily ornate?
the dead Hand of the second James
"James II of England (also known as James VII of Scotland; 14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) became King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland on 6 February 1685, and Duke of Normandy on 31 December 1660. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of England, and Kingdom of Ireland. Many of his subjects distrusted his religious policies and supposed despotism, leading a group of them to depose him in the Glorious Revolution. He was replaced not by his Roman Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, who became joint rulers in 1689. The belief that James — not William III or Mary II — was the legitimate ruler became known as Jacobitism (from Jacobus or Iacobus, Latin for James)" -- Wikipedia
page 339
In August they finally go chaining past the eighty-one-mile mark...
happens on August 25, 1764.
