Keeping it Secret: The Identity and Status of an Early-Modern Inventor

All dates are New Style, unless otherwise indicated. See A collection of the state papers of John Thurloe, ed. by Birch T. (London, 1742), i, 521–2 (10 October 1653); i, 541 (24 October 1653); i, 572 (14 November 1653); i, 595 (28 November 1653); i, 629 (19 December 1653); ii, 394 (3 July 1654); ii, 421 ([12 July 1654]). The reports were probably written by the Dutch historiographer-diplomat Lieuwe van Aitzema, one of Thurloe's informers: Aitzema , Saken van staet en oorlogh (The Hague, 1669), iii, 835–7, 935. For similar updates on the ship in English newsbooks in November 1653 and July 1654, see Mercurius politicus (nos. 177, 180, 181, 183, 212, 213 and 215); A perfect account (nos. 155 and 183); and the Weekly intelligencer (nos. 143 and 241). These reports were copied out in turn by Hartlib Samuel : Hartlib Papers 8/53/5A-6A (copy extracts in hand G, Mercurius politicus on navigational inventions, 17 November 1653).

Ware en correcte afteekening naer 't leven gedaen, van 't wonderlijcke schip dat tot Rotterdam gemaeckt is / Le vray Poutraict[!] de cette admirable navire ou machine faicte a Roterdam par le Sieur de Lisson grand ingenieur de ce temps (Amsterdam, 1653): Engraving with explanatory text in Dutch and French (Municipal Archives, Rotterdam).

van der Schoor Arie , “Het ‘Malleschip’: Een opzienbarende uitvinding te Rotterdam (1653–1658)” (unpublished paper, Maze-lezing, Rotterdam, 1990). See further: van Yk C. , De Nederlandsche scheepsbouw-konst opengesteld (Amsterdam, 1697), 12–16; Jansen H. G. , “Iets over het malleschip”, in Tindal G. A. Swart J. (eds), Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen en de zeevaartkunde (Amsterdam, 1843), iii, 133–48; “Een duikboot van voor 250 jaar”, Panorama, 13 November 1918; Droogendijk J. M. , “Het Seemonster of te wel ‘Het malleschip’”, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 15 August 1928; Wagenaar M. , “Het ‘malle schip’ van Rotterdam”, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 1 April 1934; Hazewinkel H. C. , Geschiedenis van Rotterdam (Amsterdam, 1940), ii, 315–19; Naerebout F. , Fantastische schepen (Rotterdam, 1946), 11–16; Röntgen J. F. , Het schip Utopia (Bussum, 1983), 78–79; and van der Schoor A. , Stad in aanwas: Geschiedenis van Rotterdam tot 1813 (Zwolle, 1999), 271–2. The Thurloe reports, like those in English newsbooks, have not been mentioned in any articles. The ship, however, is mentioned on several websites devoted to submarine history.

Terror Terroris, werelts-wonder-schrick seldsame, noyt-gehoorde noch bedachte vondt, mitsgaders grondige omstandelycke beschryvingh van seecker wonderbaerlyck, schrickelyck, en onverwinnelyck vaer-tuygh, ghenaemt den Oorlog-blixem ter Zee (The Hague, 1654), fol. A2v (University Library, Leiden).

Wonderen en mirakelen. Welcke doend al het vreemde, noyt diergelijcke gesiene Rotterdams Zee-Schrick (Rotterdam 1653), fol. [A]2v (University Library, Leiden).

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 521.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 521, and Wonderen en mirakelen (ref. 5), fol. [A]2r.

This was, apparently, also believed by the English. See Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), ii, 394 (3 July 1654): “The English are happy for making a peace before this machine was finished.”.

National Archives, The Hague, States of Holland, inv. 1831 (letters received), unfol. (25 February 1653): Letter of Boreel; ibid. , inv. 2452 (register concerning France), fols. 44r-45v (idem); ibid., States General, inv. 12574.107.2 (letters), unfol. (7 March 1653): Letter of Boreel to States General on de Son; ibid., States of Holland, inv. 406 (resolutions, drafts), fols. 67r-68r (10 March 1653): Invention to ruin English ships by “A certain person”; ibid. , inv. 1227 (secret resolutions), unfol. (idem); ibid., inv. 1264 (resolutions taken on advice of state pensionary), fol. 232v (idem); Secrete Resolutien van de … Staten van Holland en Westvriesland (Utrecht, 1717), i, 3–4 (idem); Resolutien van de heeren Staten van Hollandt ende West-Vrieslandt: 1653 (The Hague, s.a.), 118 (14 March 1653): Decision to send special committee to hear de Son's “revelations”; National Archives, The Hague, States of Holland, inv. 406 (resolutions, drafts), fols. 96r-97v (idem); ibid., inv. 3910 (secret resolutions); ibid., inv. 4565 (register of secret resolutions), fols. 48v-49r (idem); ibid., inv. 1394 (outgoing letters), unfol. (19 March 1653): Reprimand to Boreel; ibid., inv. 406 (resolutions, drafts), fols. 164v-165r (28 March 1653): Decision to give de Son a “Sauvegarde”; and Resolutien, 153 (idem).

National Archives, The Hague, States General, inv. 3259 (resolutions), fols. 814v-5r (30 August 1653); ibid., inv. 11941 (register of outgoing letters), fols. 341r-v (30 August 1653); and ibid., Admiralty Rotterdam, inv. 148 (resolutions), fols. 407r-v: De Son , accompanied by the Rotterdam merchant Adriaen Ambrosius, informs the Admiralty that he would like to inspect their grounds and pick a suitable place himself (1 September 1653).

van der Schoor A. , In plaats van uw aardse ouders: Geschiedenis van het Gereformeerd Burgerweeshuis te Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 1995), 56, and idem, Stad in aanwas (ref. 2), 271–2. In all, between 1300 and 1400 guilders were received. Since the entrance fee was one stiver, this suggests some 27,000 paying visitors came to see the ship.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 541 (24 October 1653), and i, 572 (14 November 1653).

Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 838; National Archives, The Hague, States General, inv. 3215 (resolutions), fol. 536r: Formation of the official delegation to greet de Son and inspect the ship (11 December 1653); fols. 541v-2r: Change of a member of the delegation (13 December 1653); fols. 547v-8r: (unspecified) report of the visit (15 December 1653); and fol. 557v: Command to pay all expenses of the delegation (19 December 1653).

Possibly Thomas Bonneau, sieur du Plessis, royal counsellor and secretary in 1634, whom Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, presented with a piece of Paris land in 1634. Municipal Archives Rotterdam, Town Council, inv. 441 (outgoing letters), fol. 192v: Obligation for “Sr de Plessis Bonneau, qualifying himself Councillor to the King of France” (9 January 1659). Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 522. A Corneille du Pont was mentioned as the Surveyor of metal works: Wonderen en mirakelen (ref. 5), fol. [A]2v.

The amount of iron mentioned in Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 521; the size differs slightly in various pamphlets. After the engravings Perfecte afbeeldinge van 't wonderlijcke schip (Amsterdam, 1653) and Ware en correcte afteekening naer 't leven gedaen, van 't wonderlijcke schip dat tot Rotterdam gemaeckt is (Amsterdam, 1653) had been published, the inventor de Son, being unhappy about the portrayal of his ship, issued another engraving that was published in Rotterdam in 1654: Perfecte afbeeldinge van 't nieuwe wonderlycke schip, gemaeckt tot Rotterdam. This print bears a caption in which de Son expresses his dissatisfaction with the incorrect depictions of the “wheels, rudder and general design of the Ship” as published in Amsterdam. On this “authorized” print, the rudder is depicted on the left side of the paddle wheel in the middle, which supports only four paddles as opposed to the six as seen in the Amsterdam engravings.

At least according to the report of Thurloe's spy; the engravings show only one. Perhaps Thurloe's informer meant to describe the paddle wheel, for there must have been confusion over the number of paddles — Engravings show four, six or even eight paddles.

Simon G. , “Les machines au XVIIe siècle: Usage, typologie, résonances symboliques”, Revue des sciences humaines, lviii (1982), 9–31.

Terror Terroris (ref. 4), fol. A2v.

Terror Terroris (ref. 4), fol. A2v.

Wonderen en mirakelen (ref. 5), fol. [A]2r, and Cort-verhael van het wonderbaerlijcke schip tot Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 1653), fol. A2r (Royal Library, The Hague).

Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 837. The French word ressort is exclusively used to indicate a metal spring.

Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 935. Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that the metal needed to make (resilient) springs is known as tempered steel. Birch, op. cit. (ref. 1), ii, 421, has de Son looking for a “device of some certain iron”.

Wonderen en mirakelen (ref. 5), fol. A2v.

Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 935. Thousands of people arrived on Monday 6 July to find the ship abandoned. The official States General delegation, however, was warned just in time that the launch had been cancelled. See National Archives, The Hague, States General, inv. 3260 (resolutions), fol. 476r: Instructions to an agent to gather information on the ship's progress (22 June 1654); and fol. 507v: Announcement of the upcoming launch by “the nobleman du Plessis”, and the formation of a delegation (1 July 1654). In May 1655, de Son was still living in Rotterdam. At his request, two metalworkers from The Hague testified about a servant of his: Municipal Archives, The Hague, Notarial archives, inv. 173, fols. 151–3 (19 May 1655).

Van der Schoor , “Het ‘Malleschip’” (ref. 3). The ship, still standing in the workyard, was sold in April 1658 (Municipal Archives, Rotterdam, Manuscript Collection, iii, inv. 1651).

Huygens Constantijn , “Journael van de gedenckwaerdighe kijk-reis gedaen in 'tjaer 1660”, line 122 (digital database of poems: www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Huygens/HUYG60.html). In 1997, the Rotterdam Historical Society “Roterodamum’ commissioned Arco van Os (lyrics) and Izak Boom (music) to write a song about the Foolish Ship: Blanker P. (ed.), Breng mij naar Rotterdam: Een eeuw liedjes over de Maasstad en haar inwoners (Rotterdam, [1998]), 69.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 541; ibid., i, 521: “Many think, that this man doth want some helleborum.” See also Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 837. In his introductory poem, Isaac Burchoorn, the publisher of Terror Terroris (ref. 4), praised de Son's wonderful new war machine, yet also expressed caution as to the outcome: “If this ship does not turn out to be the new Trojan horse / It could be worth millions” (fol. A2v).

Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 838.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 572, 14 November 1653; ibid. , i, 595, 28 November 1653; ibid. , ii, 421; Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 838; and ibid. , iii, 935.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 541. See also Aitzema , op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 837.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 521.

Epitheton seu, super navis, istius rarae Gallicae avis fabrica, nuper editae censurae Appendix ([Rotterdam], 1654), fol. Alv: “ejusque [Erasmus] Statuae vicinam hujus & effigiem & Cymbulae imaginem, in singularis operae, Orphanis, officinis, Operariis, atque tabernis navatae remunerationem, ad perpetuam rei memoriam constituendam esse” (Royal Library, The Hague).

Het Malle Schip van Rotterdam, aen Monsieur du Son, vinder en autheur van 't Malle Schip ([1654]) (University Library, Leiden), my translation. These poems are reprinted in Scheurleer D. , Van varen en van vechten — Verzen van tijdgenooten op onze zeehelden en zeeslagen, lof- en schimpdichten, matrozenliederen. 1. 1572–1654 (The Hague, 1914), 451–2. Another poem, reminiscent of the Epitheton, suggests a statue of de Son next to Erasmus: “Two metal statues will stand on the river Maas / He as the wisest man, you as the biggest fool.” A slightly different version is in Aitzema, op. cit. (ref. 1), iii, 935.

Of course, contemporaries often mocked inventors; compare for example the French ambassador's reaction to Sir William Petty's double-bottomed ship: “La plus ridicule et inutile machine que l'esprit de l'homme puisse concevoir.” See The diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. by Latham Robert Matthews William (London, 1970–83), v, 25n, and Strauss E. , Sir William Petty: Portrait of a genius (London, 1954), 115–19. On the issue of identity in the scientific community, see Shapin Steven , “Who was Robert Hooke?”, in Robert Hooke: New studies, ed. by Hunter Michael Schaffer Simon (Woodbridge, 1989), 253–85, and idem, “‘A scholar and a gentleman’: The problematic identity of the scientific practitioner in early modern England”, History of science, xxix (1991), 279–327.

Terror Terroris (ref. 4), fol. A3v.

Birch, op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 522.

De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens, ed. by Worp J. A. (The Hague, 1911–17), v, no. 5312, 188: Huygens to Frederic de Dohna, 9 October 1653.

Leibniz called him “Du Son, ou d'Egmond, Mechanicus gallicus celebris”: Leibniz G. F. , Otium Hanoverum sive Miscellanea, ed. by Feller J. (Leipzig, 1717), 185. He was introduced to the Dutch authorities as “Monsieur d'Esson, Sieur d'Aigmondt, French nobleman”: Resolutien (ref. 9), 118. None of these names is mentioned in de Mailhol Philippe Dayre , Dictionnaire historique et héraldique de la noblesse française (Paris, 1895; repr. Hildesheim/Zürich/New York, 2001).

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 1), i, 522: “Others say, that he is an ingraver by trade.” A Nicolas, or Antoine, or Nicolas-Antoine, de Son was an engraver in Reims in the 1620s, producing engravings after Cullot: See Bénézit, Thieme-Becker and Nagler's biographical dictionaries of artists. For the connection between the inventor de Son and Reims, see below. He may have used the more generic name “Jean” in Holland.

Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne religieux minime, ed. by Tannery P. de Waard C. (Paris, 1932–88), xi, no. 952bis, 435–6: Mersenne to Haak, 13 December 1640. In a rather sceptical letter to Mersenne of July 1640, vague allusions to the same project had been made by Descartes: ibid. , ix, no. 899, 524: René Descartes to Mersenne, 30 July 1640: “Pour l'ingenieur de race dont vous ecrivez, j'en voudrois voir les effets pour en croyre les propositions.” See also ibid. , x, no. 914, 87: Descartes to Mersenne, 30 August 1640. Writing to another correspondent, Mersenne mentioned more than one engineer: ibid. , ix, no. 892, 484: Mersenne to Rivet André , 15 July 1640: “Je vous entretiendrois d'estranges choses que de certains ingénieurs promettent icy.”.

In his essays on mechanics and machines, published as Mathematical magick: Or, the wonders that may be performed by mechanical geometry (London, 1648), John Wilkins included not only a flying machine but also a submarine, referring to Mersenne's ideas on the subject. See the 1691 edn, Book 2, “Daedalus; or, Mechanical Motions”: Chap. 5 (on the submarine), and chaps. 6–8 (on “volant Automata”, the art of flying and the flying chariot). Around 1640, William Gascoigne was involved in constructing a flying machine: Duhem J. , Histoire des idées aéronautiques avant Montgolfier (Paris, 1943), 166, and Chapman Allan , Dividing the circle: The development of critical angular measurement in astronomy 1500–1850 (Chichester, 1990), 35–45 and 172–6.

Tannery de Waard (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), xii, no. 1238, 392: Théodore Deschamps to Mersenne, c. 28 December 1643. A year earlier, Deschamps had explained to Mersenne why he thought the intended flying machine would never work: ibid. , xi, no. 1875, 89: Deschamps to Mersenne, 26 March 1642.

Tannery de Waard (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), xvi, no. 1765, 180: Mersenne to Hevelius, 14 March 1648.

Mansuy A. , “L'aviation à Varsovie et à Reims au XVIIe siècle et Cyrano de Bergerac”, in idem, Le monde Slave et les classiques Français aux XVIe-XVIIe siècles (Paris, 1912), 203–29; Targosz K. , “‘Le dragon volant’ de Tito Livio Burattini”, Annali dell Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, ii (1977), 67–85; Taton R. , “Le ‘dragon volant’ de Burattini”, Revue des sciences humaines, lviii (1982,), 45–66; and idem, “Nouveau document sur le ‘dragon volant’ de Burattini”, Annali dell' Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, vii (1982), 161–7.

Tannery de Waard (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), xvi, no. 1768, 187–8: Pierre Desnoyers to Gilles de Roberval, 18 March 1648.

Tannery de Waard (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), xvi, no. 1802, 317: Pierre Desnoyers to Mersenne, 21 May 1648.

Duhem , op. cit. (ref. 41), 219, suggests that de Son's machine used large sails (and no “engine”), referring to the curious anecdote in Cotelendi C. , Arlequiniana ou les bon mots, le [sic] histoires plaisantes et agréables (Paris, 1735; first pub. 1694), 99–101, in which an inventor named “Du….” constructs a similar machine in Brussels. Unfortunately, his “glider” crashes and the inventor breaks his legs. In the Dutch translation the name of the inventor does not appear: Cotolendi C. , Arlequiniana, of kluchtspreuken (Amsterdam, 1711), 69–72. De Son's invention is not mentioned in the directory of flying machines in Hart Clive , The prehistory of flight (Berkeley, 1985), nor in Guthke Karl S. , Der Mythos der Neuzeit (Bern, 1983), translated as The last frontier (Ithaca, 1990).

Tannery de Waard (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), xvi, no. 1777, 219: Constantijn Huygens to Mersenne, 6 April 1648: “Par occasion je m'en informeray plus amplement et cependant attendray la machine a voler, mais, comme je pense vous auoir dit, bien plus encor les veritables temoignages des experiences faictes en Pologne & and ibid. , xvi, no. 1809, 346: Columbi J. to Mersenne , 2 June 1648: “i'ay veu ce que vous luy marquez de ce grand volleur de Pologne [i.e. Burattini] et de l'autre qui prestand de porter des canons en vollants.” Mersenne certainly believed flying was possible: Beaulieu A. , Mersenne le grand Minime (Brussels, 1995), 301.

On inventions in England in this period see Webster Charles , The Great Instauration: Science, medicine and reform 1626–1660 (2nd edn, Bern, 2002), esp. pp. 343–55 on science applied for economic purposes and 384–402 on ironworks and chemistry. See also Wallace Anthony F. C. , The social context of innovation: Bureaucrats, families and heroes in the early Industrial Revolution as foreseen in Bacon's New Atlantis (Princeton, 1982), 21–61, on the Office of Ordnance as an institutionalized setting for the development of new technologies.

Airy O. , “The correspondence of Sir Robert Moray with Alexander Bruce, second Earl of Kincardine”, Scottish review, v (1885), 22–43, and Robertson A. , The life of Sir Robert Moray: Soldier, statesman and man of science (1608–1673) (London, 1922). It was in Maastricht that de Son met the blind man, who could “feel” colours with his fingers, about whom Robert Boyle wrote extensively in his Experiments and considerations touching colours (London, 1664), chap. 3, 42–46. Boyle had received his information from Sir John Finch, who had met the blind man in the early 1660s: Malloch A. , Finch and Baines: A seventeenth-century friendship (Cambridge, 1917), 34. See also The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed. by Hall A. Rupert Hall M. Boas (Amsterdam/London, 1965–86), ii, no. 430, 558: Oldenburg Henry to Boyle Robert , 20 October 1665, on de Son's meeting, and ibid. , no. 435, 569: Boyle to Oldenburg , 24 October 1665, asking Oldenburg to “procure … in writeing” de Son's observations on the subject.

Moray R. , “A way to break easily and speedily the hardest Rocks, communicated by the same Person [i.e. Moray], as he received it from Monsieur Du Son, the Inventor”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, i (1665–66), issue of 3 July 1665, 82–85: “That which is here to be described, was invented by one of the most Excellent Mechanicks in the World, Monsieur du Son, who lately put it in practice himself in Germany, at the desire of the Elector of Mentz.” From 1655 onwards, Johann Philip von Schönborn contracted many foreign engineers for his elaborate, defensive bastion projects in Mainz and Wiirtzberg, which included mining works. See Kahlenberg F. P. , Kurmainzischen Verteidigungseinrichtungen und Baugeschichte der Festung Mainz im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Mainz, 1963), 118–22 and 138–44. According to a letter from Leibniz to Gerhard Meier, de Son was also known to the Duchess of Braunschweig: Leibniz G. W. , Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe Allgemeiner politische und historische Briefwechsel, vii: 1691–1692 (Berlin, 1964), 633: “similis mihi videtur cuidam Dusonio Mathematico insigni … de quo narrare solet Serenissimia Ducissa nostra” (28 March 1692).

Birch T. , The history of the Royal Society of London (London, 1756–57), i, 403, 23 March 1664; and Oeuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens (The Hague, 1888–1950), v, no. 1252, 105: Moray to Huygens Christiaan , 15 August 1664.

Ibid., no. 1243, 87–88: Moray to Huygens, 18 July 1664.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 52), i, 475, 12 October 1664.

de Huygens Oeuvres (ref. 52), v, no. 1268, 136 and 139: Moray to Huygens, 7 November 1664.

Ibid., no. 1274, 148, Huygens to Moray , 21 November 1664.

For an overview of Blount's and Hooke's experiments see Terrier M. , “The researches of the Royal Society of London on carriage springs”, The carriage journal, xix (1981), 11–17. See also Wackernagel R. H. , “Zur Geschichte der Kutsche bis zum Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts”, in Treue W. (ed.), Achse, Rad und Wagen: Fünftausend Jahre Kultur- und Technikgeschichte (rev. edn, Göttingen, 1986), 197–235.

Birch , op. cit. (ref. 52), ii, 19–20, 1 March 1665.

de Huygens Oeuvres (ref. 52), v, no. 1268, 139: Moray to Huygens , 7 November 1664: “Il se fait une Calesche pour le Roy … du Son en est linventeur”; ibid. , no. 1287, 168: Moray to Huygens , 19 December 1664; and ibid. , no. 1348, 262: Moray to Huygens , 6 March 1665.

For a sketch and detailed description of the construction, see ibid., no. 1326, 227: Moray to Huygens , 6 February 1665.

Ibid., no. 1318, 214: Moray to Huygens , 30 January 1665; ibid. , no. 1326, 227: Moray to Huygens , 6 February 1665; and ibid. , no. 1348, 262: Moray to Huygens , 6 March 1665.

Huygens's criticism: ibid., no. 1301, 185–6: Huygens to Moray , 2 January 1665; and ibid. , no. 1338, 249: Huygens to Moray , 27 February 1665. Interestingly enough, Huygens had promised the French inventor of the chaise roulante a sketch of de Son's carriage as soon as he would have it: ibid. , no. 1296, 178: Huygens to the Duke de Roannez, 31 December 1664.

de Huygens Oeuvres (ref. 52), vii, no. 2027 and 2029, 458 and 460: Huygens to Mr Contesse, 6 May 1675; Hooke R. , “Lectures de potentia restitutiva or of spring, explaining the power of springing bodies” (London, 1678), in Early science in Oxford, ed. by Gunther R. T. , viii: The Cutler lectures of Robert Hooke (Oxford, 1931), 331–88, p. 332: “The Theory of Springs, though attempted by diverse eminent Mathematicians of this Age has hitherto not been Published by any. It is now about eighteen years since I first found it out [i.e. c. 1660]”. Hooke's Law (p. 333): “The Power of any Spring is in the same Proportion with the Tension thereof.” See also Smith Cyril Stanley , “The discovery of carbon in steel”, in idem, A search for structure: Selected essays on science, art, and history (s.l., 1981), 33–53.

Moray , op. cit. (ref. 51); Gregory C. E. , A concise history of mining (rev. edn, Lisse, 2001), 121–2, mentions that only after 1689 was it realized that “the use of [explosives] against the face [of a rock] was both wasteful and ineffective, and [that] it would be better to place the explosives within the rock” by drilling holes — Exactly the method that de Son had proposed 24 years earlier. He was also working on other mining projects: Hall Hall (eds), op. cit. (ref. 50), ii, no. 472, 644: Oldenburg to de Son , c. 28 December 1665: “I should be delighted to learn from you how to extract all the lead found in a mirror and all the silver found in the lead in one operation, at small cost, and in a short time. After that, perhaps I should become a miner”; and ibid., iii, no. 479, 9: Moray to Oldenburg , 28 January 1666.

Philosophical transactions, i (1665–66), issue of 6 November 1665, 90; and “Of Monsieur de Sons Progress in working Parabolar Glasses”, ibid., issue of 4 December 1665, 119–20.

Hall Hall (eds), op. cit. (ref. 50), ii, no. 428, 553: Oldenburg to Huygens , 17 October 1665; ibid. , no. 431, 560: Moray to Oldenburg , 20 October 1665; and ibid. iii, no. 481, 15: Oldenburg to Huygens, 25 January 1666.

Ibid., iii, no. 479, 8: Moray to Oldenburg , 18 January 1666. See also: ibid., ii, no. 431, 560: Moray to Oldenburg , 20 November 1665. For the Hooke-Huygens priority dispute on springs, see Iliffe Rob , “‘In the warehouse’: Privacy, property and priority in the early Royal Society”, History of science, xxx (1992), 29–68.

Hall Hall (eds), op. cit. (ref. 50), iii, no. 497, 59: Oldenburg to Boyle , 13 March 1666.

Although his mother, the Queen of Bohemia, and his sisters came to see the ship in Rotterdam in 1653, Rupert probably did not: He stayed at the French court from March 1653 onwards.

See op. cit. (ref. 68), and The diary of Robert Hooke 1672–1680, ed. by Robinson H. W. Adams W. (London, 1935), 379 (1 October 1678). On de Son's showing Hooke his lenses: ibid., 246 (17 August 1676). See also pp. 406 (12 April 1679) and 439 (17 February 1680), where Hooke mentioned de Son, without specifying whether he was still alive; see The correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. by Hunter M. Clericuzio A. Principe L. M. (London, 2001), iv, 397: Finch to Boyle, 10 September 1675. Hunter identify Heneage Finch as the second Earl, the Oxford DNB as the third.

Hall Hall (eds), op. cit. (ref. 50), ii, no. 447, 593: Oldenburg to Moray , 17 November 1665; no. 451, 605: Moray to Oldenburg , 22 November 1665; and no. 462, 624: Moray to Oldenburg , 7 December 1665.

Ibid., no. 438, 576: Moray to Oldenburg , 29 October 1665, and no. 447, 593: Oldenburg to Moray , 17 November 1665.

Ibid., no. 451, 605: Moray to Oldenburg , 22 November 1665.

Hunter Michael , The Royal Society and its Fellows 1660–1700: The morphology of an early scientific institution (2nd edn, Oxford, 1994), 119–22 (Appendix 12: Foreign members).

Ibid., 27.

Hall Hall (eds), op. cit. (ref. 50), iv, no. 768, 149: Justel Henri to Oldenburg , 15 February 1668.

See Pumfrey Stephen Dawbarn Frances , “Science and patronage in England, 1570–1625: A preliminary study”, History of science, xlii (2004), 137–88.

Jaeger F. M. , Cornelis Drebbel en zijne tijdgenooten (Groningen, 1922); Tierie G. , Cornelis Drebbel (1572–1633) (Leiden, 1932); and Harris L. E. , The two Netherlanders: Humphrey Bradley and Cornelis Drebbel (Cambridge, 1961).

In 1662, his son and son-in-law petitioned Charles II for a “tryall … of ye Reallety of this secret of sinking and distroying of ships in a moment”, which secret had been left by Drebbel's will: Jaeger , op. cit. (ref. 78), 118–19. The connection between engravers and mechanical-instrument makers is noted in Taylor E. G. R. , The mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1968), 162.

Tierie , op. cit. (ref. 78), 54.

On Papin, see the Oxford dictionary of national biography..

Wallace , op. cit. (ref. 49), 6, points out the importance of religious persecution for the career of, amongst others, Denis Papin.

Shapin , op. cit. (ref. 34), 275–6, and Iliffe , op. cit. (ref. 67), 33–34 on the use of cypher to announce inventions.