Читать книгу Physics of the Terrestrial Environment, Subtle Matter and Height of the Atmosphere - Eric Chassefiere - Страница 11

This chapter presents an examination of the words used in the early and mid-18th century to describe the atmosphere, and everything related to its functioning, as well as ether and subtle matter that are closely involved in its environment and composition. This knowledge of the precise meaning of the words referencing the atmosphere and its various components, which fit into a framework of thought very different from that of today, is necessary to understand the evolution of the thinking of the time. Here, we will voluntarily limit ourselves to the definitions given in specific dictionaries: (i) the Dictionnaire Universel de Furetière, whose first volume of the first edition dates back to 1690 (Furetière 1690–1701), and a fourth edition dates back to 1727 (Furetière 1727), (ii) the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert, published beginning in 1751 (Encyclopédie 1751–1772), and (iii) the English Lexicon Technicum, of which the first publication dates back to 1704 (Harris 1704). More in-depth information will be provided in the following chapters.

Furetière’s dictionary has this exact title: Dictionnaire Universel, Contenant généralement tous les mots français, tant vieux que modernes, et les Termes de toutes les Sciences et des Arts. Designed to compensate for the lack of consideration of scientific, technical and artistic words in the Dictionnaire by the Académie (French Academy of Sciences), which did not appear until 1694, this dictionary, initially written by Antoine de Furetière in the 1650s, constitutes a significant sum of scientific and technical knowledge at the turn of the 18th century. Its publication, first as an excerpt in 1684, then as a complete publication in 1690, two years after Furetière’s death, although endorsed by Louis XIV, earned its author his exclusion from the Académie Française, a (short) majority of whose members did not look favorably on this initiative, which was in competition with that of the institution. In addition to the content of the 1690 edition, a comparison of this content with the enriched 1727 edition provides interesting outlooks on the evolution of the meaning of words, and of the underlying knowledge, during the first quarter of the 18th century. The Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert, published in the middle of the 18th century, provides a much larger compendium, which reflects the rapid development of scientific thought in the first half of the Enlightenment. We limit ourselves in this chapter to this particular period, to the 18th century, during which reflections on the height of the atmosphere, and on the subtle matters invoked to explain the rapidly emerging discrepancies between the estimates made by the different methods, are developed. The progression of knowledge between 1727, the date of the publication of the fourth edition of Le Furetière, and 1751, date of the first edition of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert, is very significant, and we will try to outline the primary paths of this evolution. In this chapter, we will note DUF-1690 and DUF-1727, the editions of the Dictionnaire Universel Furetière of 1690–1701 and 1727.

The first English alphabetical encyclopedia is the Lexicon Technicum or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves (Harris 1704), referred to simply as the Lexicon here. Although the emphasis is on mathematical subjects, it does not only contain terms of a scientific or technical nature, but also includes entries relating to law, commerce, music and the arts in general. It is the work of Pastor John Harris, who claimed for his dictionary not only the function of giving the meaning of scientific and artistic words, but also elements of knowledge about the sciences and arts referred to by words, in a universalist approach that would be that of Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie half a century later. We have limited ourselves in this chapter to the first edition of the Lexicon dating to 1704, composed of a first volume, a second volume consisting of additions, composed mainly of mathematical and astronomical tables, being published in 1710. Three other editions of the first volume were created in a short period of time, in 1708, 1716 and 1725, with the two volumes being published together only in 1736. In his preface, Harris insists on the fact that the contents of his dictionary do not come from other dictionaries, but are collected from the original works of the best authors, thus making it a source of information in its own right, with contents distinct from the Furetière, and otherwise specific to the English scientific context, differing in many respects from the French context, as we will see.

In section 1.2, we examine the definitions of air and atmosphere, as these two terms are far from being equivalent. Sections 1.3 and 1.4, respectively, deal with vapors and exhalations, as well as with subtle matter, two essential components of the atmosphere, as the treatment of subtle matter also requires attention to the definition of “normal” (“coarse” as opposed to “subtle”) matter. Section 1.5 is devoted to the triptych made up of the three subtle matters heat, fire and light, closely linked by multiple relations, whether demonstrated or conjectural. Section 1.6 deals with the question of the meaning given to the word ether, in its complex relationship with the atmosphere. We end with a conclusion, which is also the introduction to the main body of the work, which deals with subtle matters, particularly in relation to the question of the height of the atmosphere. Naturally, in this analysis, we seek to investigate the scientific concepts underlying the words used, since they partly determine their meaning, the nascent scientific approach contributing to inflecting this meaning according to the characters, proven or supposed, of the designated environments and phenomena. However, this investigation is only minimal, in the very spirit of the dictionaries used, as the scientific contents specific to the primary subject of the work, namely the height of the atmosphere, are to be developed in the following chapters. We have not presented all of the matter considered in the various articles analyzed, focusing on those that are directly related to the theme of this book.