F.Guillaume le Gentil set out to observe the event from Pondicherry, in the south of India, but didn't arrive until after it had taken place. The luckless le Gentil stayed on in the area for eight more years, getting ready to observe the 1769 transit, which was completely obscured by cloud-the only bad morning in an otherwise clear month. When he eventually returned to France, he found that he had been given up for dead, and relatives had divided up his estate. So much for the rewards of science!
G. In 1761, the transit was observed from 62 sites around the world, with 120 observers-French, British, Danish, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, and Portuguese. The outcome was inconclusive, but waves of enthusiastic effort were renewed for 1769, when there were 63 sites and 138 observers. Although hostilities between the French and British had only recently diminished, the French were reported to have instructed their forces not to molest Cook, as he was on a mission of service to all mankind. When the calculations were later averaged, the distance estimated was within a million miles of the actual distance of 93 million-a laudable effort.
H. Observing the transit of Venus was the first great act of international scientific co-operation, and it involved generous financial support by both government and commercial bodies. (The East India Company, for example, provided free passage to India for observers.) The work was underpinned by organisations which existed to sponsor science. In Britain this was the Royal Society, founded in 1663 by a group of philosophers who met in London to exchange views on "experimental philosophy" (the word science was not used until the 1820s). In France, at about the same time, the Academy des Sciences and the Académie Fransé were established. The societies were clearing houses which published scientific papers and provided access to scientific work to the wider community.
I. Public attitudes to science were also undergoing a change at this time. Up until the 17th century, astronomy was a semi-secret activity pursued only by a few experts who were in danger of religious persecution. But by the 18th century everyone was agog for celestial news. French newspapers covered the story of the transit of Venus with the same enthusiasm modern media might cover a mission to Mars. Part of this change was provoked when people found that scientific discovery could be applied for fun and profit in the real world. Newtonian philosophers became involved in engineering projects: pumps to put air into and take water from mines, and to supply water. Mathematics became linked with the new insurance business-the Sun Insurance Company was founded soon after 1700.
J. Part of the excitement over science also sprang from a sense of liberation shared by the non-scientific community as reason swept aside superstition and dogma. It was felt to be a time of enlightenment. Yet by the end of the century, intellectuals found that that they had jumped too soon, and that science did not assuage the pain of being human. It has taken nearly two centuries to resume "the quest for enlightenment," to use the words of sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, who considers that a web of causal explanations for all aspects of human existence can now, at last, be seriously contemplated. |
