In this episode of Travels Through Time the author and journalist Hugh Aldersey-Williams takes us back to 1655 and the vibrant heart of the Dutch Golden Age to meet Christiaan Huygens, a figure oddly forgotten by us today but who was once venerated as the greatest mathematician, astronomer and physicist of his age.
Hugh guides us back to the year 1655 to see Christiaan make his thrilling discovery of one of Saturn's moons; to watch him struggle with the mathematical problem of pendular motion, and to follow him as he enters Paris - the city he would come to love - for the very first time.
Much much more about the scenes, characters and materials discussed in this conversation can be found at www.tttpodcast.com
The discussion in this episode of Travels Through Time arises from the characters and events described by Hugh Aldersey-Williams in his new book, Dutch Light: Christiaan Huygens and the making of science in Europe which is recently published in hardback by Picador
Show notesScene One: 25 March 1655. With Christiaan and his telescope in the garden of the Huygens’s house in The Hague. The discovery of Saturn’s moon later to be called Titan.
Scene Two: 4 March 1655, Huygens recommends a Polish inventor’s clock for Dutch patent, demonstrating that he is already thinking about the problem of pendular motion.
Scene Three: 23 July 1655, Huygens arrives in Paris - the city that he would grow to love - for the very first time
Memento: One of Huygens’s magic lanterns
PeoplePresenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
See where 1655 fits on our Timeline
Felipe Fernández-Armesto; The Year Our World Began (1492)
Paul Fischer: Motion Pictures and the Rise of Modern Britain (1888)
Dr Suzie Sheehy: The Matter of Everything (1932)
Nicholas Guyatt: The Dartmoor Massacre (1815)
Bronwen Riley: Journey to Britannia (130 AD)
Katherine Rundell: John Donne, Super-Infinite (1601)
Mary Wellesley: Hidden Hands (1413)
Nick Higham: The Mercenary River (1837)
Margaret Willes: In The Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral (1666)
Daniel Levy: The Great Fire of New York (1835)
Matthew Green: Shadowlands (1965)
Seb Falk: The Astronomer and the Astrolabe (1327)
Nadine Akkerman: Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (1620)
Anthony Tucker-Jones: Winston Churchill and Victory in North Africa (1943)
Christopher de Bellaigue: Suleyman the Magnificent (1534)
Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen: A History of the Library (1850)
Lulu Jemimah: The Last Pre-Colonial King of Buganda (1885)
Ronen Steinke: The Arab Doctor and the Jewish Girl (1943)
Dr Priya Atwal: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire (1837)
David Bosco: The Struggle to Rule the Ocean (1982)
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Lore