These Were All Pleasure: The Founding of the Royal Society

We see it everywhere. It's difficult to open a newspaper, listen to the news on the TV or radio, or watch a documentary without being told, "According to scientists…" or "Scientists have discovered…" At times these "scientists" seem to take on the role of Delphic Oracle, bestowing the news from on high.

But it wasn't always so.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when there were no "scientists," when science itself was being defined, and when men gathered, out of interest, at a local pub to talk about what we might now regard as "neat stuff." The time was 1645, the place London, and this casual group of men went on to found what is now the world's oldest scientific academy, The Royal Society.

Ideas about how the natural world should be explored had been changing throughout the Rennaissance, of course. But most educated people still looked towards the classical authorities, particularly Aristotle, for the road map to discovery. Aristotle's system was based on deductive reasoning, you would look at a thing and deduce what led it to be so. The problem with this, is that this kind of reasoning is dependent on the experiences of the observer, which may or may not be focusing on the relevant issues. Also, simple observation can lead to false conclusions. For example, when looking at the circulation of blood, people had noticed that after death the most blood could be found in the liver, so they deduced that the liver must drive the circulation.

In the early 17th century, Francis Bacon, the disgraced Lord Chancellor of England who turned to philosophy in his retirement, outlined what he regarded as a method for investigation which focused on gathering facts, observation and analysis based on those facts. He was very cognizant of the danger of imposing our own subjective ideas onto those facts. This is what we all learned in High School as the "scientific method."

Two years after Bacon's death in 1626, William Harvey published his treatise on the circulation of blood and caused a sensation. "I began to think," he said, "whether there might not be a motion, as it were in a circle." Good thought. His work, and his system of experimentation had a tremendous influence on younger scientists, among them Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke, both of whom used Harvey's methods in their own work.

By 1645, at the close of the English Civil War, a small group of men had begun to meet once a week in London. These initial enthusiasts included John Wilkins, Jonathan Godard, George Ent, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Merret, Samuel Foster and John Wallis. They were forbidden to discuss such subjective (and explosive) matters as religion or politics, but were to concentrate on the "natural world." Writing some years later, Wallis outlined the subjects of discussion: "Our business was to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto: as physic, anatomy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, statics, magnetics, chemics, mechanics, and natural experiments; with the state of these studies, as then cultivated at home and abroad."

He goes on to outline some specific areas of study: "We then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, the venae lactae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican hypothesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of Jupiter, the oval shape of Saturn, the spots in the sun, and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and selenography of the moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of telescopes, and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities, and nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian Experiment in quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies, and the degree of acceleration therein; and in diverse other things of like nature."

In the late 1640s some of the members moved to Oxford, where they started up a new meeting group, now joined by architect Christopher Wren and Robert Boyle. At first they met at William Petty's home - he lodged with an apothecary which gave them access to drugs for a variety of experiments. Then, after Petty's move to Ireland, they began to meet at Boyle's home. The popularity of the meetings and discussions attracted many new members, prompting Boyle to christen the group, "the invisible college."

Following the restoration of Charles II in 1660, they moved back to London and it was there, at a meeting following one of Wren's lectures at Gresham College, that they discussed "a designe of founding a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall, Expermentall Learning." This is regarded at the official founding of the Society, and the members who were present at this meeting are considered the Founding Fellows: Robert Boyle, Alexander Bruce, William Viscount Brouncker, Sir Robert Moray, Sir Paul Neile, John Wilkins, Jonathan Goddard, William Petty, William Ball, Lawrence Rooke, Christopher Hill and Abraham Hill.

Sir Robert Moray trotted off to court and told Charles II of their proposed society. The king was immediately smitten with the idea. Like others of his age, Charles was interested in everything. He had a fascination with clocks and watches, ending up with seven in his bedroom alone; he longed for a lunar globe with the hills and canyons of its surface molded and the whole thing in the proper shades of white; he pored over new maps and had what others referred to as the "King's Tube," a telescope, installed in the Privy Garden. The king was more than ready to grant his approval to the new Society.

Moray told his colleagues the good news at their second meeting on the 5th of December 1660. Two years later the king granted "The Royal Society" its first charter, followed by another a year after that when he granted them their arms. The motto chosen by the Society, Nullius in Verbia (nothing by words), strove to summarize what had always been their aim - to prove everything with facts, and not to rely on anyone's word or opinion alone.

Following the formation, the king at first wanted the Society to examine every philosophical or mechanical invention before the patent was passed. He eventually calmed down, but his enthusiasm was a product of his time. And like Charles, the other Founding Fellows were interested in everything. The idea of the scientist who specializes in one branch of one science was alien to these men, for whom versatility was everything. At the time, they were called virtuosos (another word which has radically changed its meaning), which was applied to people who were experts in a range of disciplines. Christopher Wren, for example, was a Professor of Astronomy by the time he was twenty-four, and admired throughout Europe for his mechanical invention. He was over thirty before he decided to tackle architecture. Roger North, a barrister, musician, author and architect also mastered the theory of light. His brother, Francis, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, was also an accomplished musician and devoted what remained of his spare time to the Torricellian experiments.

The winner in the virtuosity stakes would have to be Robert Hooke, however. Little known now, partly as a result of arousing the enmity of Isaac Newton, Hooke was highly regarded in his own time. His interests covered physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, geology, naval architecture and architecture. He invented the universal joint, the iris diaphragm, and an early prototype of the respirator; invented the anchor escapement and the balance spring, which made more accurate clocks possible; served as Chief Surveyor and helped rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666; worked out the correct theory of combustion; assisted Robert Boyle in working out the physics of gases; worked out the physics of elastic materials; invented or improved meteorological instruments such as the barometer, anemometer, and hygrometer; and that was probably all before breakfast. As an early paleontologist he understood that fossils were not "sports of nature," but that they had once been living things, and 250 years before Darwin he realized that they documented changes among the organisms on the planet, and that species have appeared and become extinct throughout history. He also had a go at making a flying machine, going so far as to make a model which "by the help of springs and wings, raised itself in the air." He soon came to the realization that mankind lacked the muscle power to make it work, so "I applied my mind to contrive a way to make artificial muscles; divers designs whereof I showed also at the same time to Dr. Wilkins, but was in many of my trials frustrated of my expectations."

Gradually the membership increased, and by the end of the century the Society's members included Isaac Newton, Nicolaus Mercator, Edmund Halley, William Croone, Christopher Merret, Denis Papin, and Sir Hans Sloane. Even diarist Samuel Pepys became a member in 1665, noting in his diary what he saw that day, "But it is a most acceptable thing to hear their discourses and see their experiments; which was this day upon the nature of fire, and how it goes out in a place where the ayre is not free, and sooner out where the ayre is exhausted; which they showed by an engine on purpose." After the experiments, Pepys and his new colleagues repaired to the Crown tavern and had supper. Pepys remained involved with the Society, eventually becoming its President. In addition to their own experiments, The Society assigned someone each year as "itinerant," whose job it was to travel the country and report back on new discoveries. They sent experiments with anyone traveling abroad who was willing, for example when Prince Rupert was heading off to lead a fleet against the Dutch on the Guinea coast, they asked him to spend his spare time sounding the depths without a line, and requested that he bring back some water from the bottom of the sea.

By the close of Charles' reign, the Royal Society had become an institution. From 1665 its work was recorded in "Philosophical Transactions," which became one of the earliest periodicals, and is still published today. The venerable institution has provided the blueprint for the foundation of similar organizations the world over, and science has become the prism through which we all view our world.

But it was those men in the 17th century who started it all, and whose joy at discovery can still be felt even after 350 years. "The very remembrance of these things," wrote Roger North in later years, "is delight, and while I write methinks I play. All other employments that filled my time go on account of work and business: these were all pleasure."