Newton's Radio

1672 Isaac Newton’s letter on light and colour is read to the Royal society and criticised by Robert Hooke. Newton threatens to withdraw from the Royal Society. The cracks are papered over.

1679 Newton and Hooke correspond on light, the movement of planets and many other subjects. They disagree but are still polite to each other.

1680 Newton ends his letters to Hooke. Hooke continues to write occasionally. Their relationship deteriorates from unfriendly rivalry to icy feud. (It is amazing how much of science is filled with these.) Newton will make sure the correspondence is destroyed as part of his efforts to claim all credit for gravity and electrics.

POD

1681 Hooke’s latest letter to Newton about telescope apertures mentions in passing that new results from Hamburg suggest his theory of light may be mistaken. Newton is incensed and writes to Halley (who has friends in Germany) demanding more details. Halley does his best but what he sends is a garbled account of Von Guericke’s electric experiments. Newton tries to set up the experiments to refute Hooke but uses copper wire (not silk thread ) due to the mistranslation of a spelling mistake.

1682 For the next ten years Newton works privately on many subjects one of which is his study of electrics based on the apparatus he had built. He dislikes the popular theories of fluids preferring corpuscular theories. He starts by spinning a magnet mounted on a wheel next to a wire and showing a compass is deflected. Then using the size of sparks as a measure of potential he proposes his laws of electrics.

1. The flow of electric corpuscles (OTL Current) is such to oppose the movement of a magnet and the force on a magnet is proportional to the flow, inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the wire and such that the magnet would move to oppose the flow of corpuscles

2. The flow is proportional to the electric potential (OTL Voltage), the cross sectional area of the wire and inversely proportional to the length of the wire (now referred to as the width where W=k A/l) (OTL Conductance). This is usually written as F= PW (OTL I = V/R).

(The time this takes comes from his biblical numerology studies which I assume will have little effect on the future and, because he is Newton, he tells nobody about his work)


1683 Robert Sieur de La Salle reaches mouth of the Mississippi and claims Louisiana (present day East NuSpania and West Carolina) in the name of Louis XIV and with 700 colonists from France founds FortSt Louis.

1687 Newton is persuaded to publish his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in which he reveals his theory of gravity and laws of motion. Hooke claims he has not been given credit for his suggestions. This is probably true.

1701 War of Spanish Succession. (Entirely unaffected, changes so far are limited to Newton and his immediate household.)

1703 With the death of Hooke and Newton’s election to the Presidency he achieves a dominance over the Royal Society and British science, which will be unchallenged for the next 25 years.

1704 Newton publishes his work on corpuscle theory of light in OPTIKS which includes a chapter on electrics which he separates from ‘statiks’. He also discusses an experiment in which a spark in one loop causes a spark in a second isolated loop. This effect he explains as the movement of electric corpuscles through the lumniferous aether just as light corpuscles move.
 
I have been surprised at how few timelines have scientific points of departure. Except of course for the inevitable Germany/Japan/Russia develop the atom bomb early:rolleyes:
 
"The example of Newton is often quoted as the irreplaceable genius without whom the progress of human knowledge would be quite different. However although he made several significant discoveries I contend that he produced nothing that would not have become known in the next generation. Consider, calculus was invented independently by Hooke and Leibnitz, Charlesworth or Franklyn were as likely to formulise electrics, theories of gravity were wide spread in the scientific community and it can be argued Huygens’ theory of light was superior.
My conclusion is that once the scientific method is adopted the path of science is constrained. The general worship of the great man is as fatuous as it is demeaning. No matter how great the genius the most he can do is speed up or retard the inevitable march of progress by a few years."

Inevitability and the history of science (Josiah Winthock, University of WestPort, Williamsland 1905)

"Winthock is one of the most mediocre of thinkers and so spends what little genius he has on diminishing those who are far beyond him."

An answer to Inevitability: Oxford Quarterly Science Review (Naiomi Takahashee, Oxford University Press 1907)
 
1706 Birth of Benjamin Franklin in Boston, Newengland.

1709 In an attempt to defend Newton’s light theories from attack by the followers of Huygens’ wave theory George Bratton manages to send a signal 281 feet using a primitive electric semaphore.

1710 Newton oversees the move of the Royal Society to new premises in Crane Court and institutes invitational public lectures by famous scientists as a defence of his theories. Naturally nobody opposed to his ideas will give a lecture there until the Rev White in 1798.

1713 Treaty of Utrecht. End of war with France and Spain. Britain gains East Newfoundland, Hudson, Gibraltar and Arcadia. Austria gets most of the Spanish European empire and United Provinces gets fortresses in Austrian Netherlands. Spain gives Britain the Asiento, the right to sell slaves in South America, this is passed on to the South Sea Company (which loses money on the deal).

1714 Asked to testify before the Longitude board Newton lists the possible methods (chronometers, transits of the moon, moons of Jupiter and Bratton’s signals) and states they are all impractical. Parliament votes funds for a prize.
(Changes are now widespread in the scientific community, their support staff (instrument makers and servants) and the upper classes interested in science)

1718 Missisippi company founds New Orleans.


1719 Charlesworth develops the first practical electric pump (OTL generator), powered by a water wheel and used to drive his experiments in electric communication.

Collapse of the Mississippi Company in France causes economic slump and political unrest.

1720 Collapse of South Sea Bubble in September, Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister.

1723 Franklin moves to Philadelphia and then to London. He attends Charlesworth’s lectures at Crane House and continues to correspond with him when he returns to Newengland.

1725 Henri Pitot develops the electric turboule or turbul (OTL motor. Note the word turbine has not yet been coined and now probably never will be) in order to power a water pump at the top of a tower to simulate rain for a royal masque.

1728 Demonstration semaphore (from the Greek, a carrier of signals) system set up and signal sent form London to Dover (65 miles).
Newton Dies.
Franklin returns to Boston and opens printing business in partnership with his father in law and in competition with his brother.
(From this time change starts to spread significantly beyond the scientific community).
 
Question: What powers the electrical engine that's being used?
Human power, if I'm reading right. It all seems at a theoretical point for now, so human power is still feasible. As soon as it hits mainstream, other forms will be used (water, wind, possibly steam). BTW has the steam engine we all know and love been invented yet?
 
It is rare to see timelines based on technological advancements rather than economic or political decisions . The premise is intriguing.
 
1729 Treaty of Seville gives Spanish coast guards the right to search British ships in south American waters, Captain Shadwick loses his left thumb while being arrested for smuggling in the West Indies.

1730 Charlesworth receives the first Copely medal for his work on Semaphore signals. Daniel Bernoulli invents probability-thermodynamics.
Harrison starts his work on chronometers.

1735 Founding of the Royal Semaphore Institute (RSI) in York to train the builders and operators of semaphore stations. The crest of the institute shows a shield vertically divided, on the left is a gold lightning flash on azure while the right is a red bull rampant on white. The supporters are figures of mercury and the motto is Sapientia Superat Moras. (usually translated as “wisdom overcomes chaos” but RSI members translate it as “Brains beat Shite”.)

1737 George William Frederick born at Cliveden. (future King George III, a different person to OTL, plain spoken, not very bright but respectable. He does not get Porphyria.) Franklin invents the Franklin Balls which quickly replace Newton’s Plates in semaphore stations. (OTL capacitors).

1738 The Sullivan Spark Code is introduced. This indicates letters by a system of one or two sparks (known as a Stutt). The combination of up to six Sparks (written as | ) or Stutts (written as : ) indicates a letter, number, other symbol or common English Phrase. For example ‘the’ can be indicated by | : | / : | : : / | | / while | | | | | | / is “God Save the King”
 
OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY(23rd edition:1893)

Stutt (stǔt) (Pl stutts) noun 1. In Sullivan and similar codes, the rapid repetition of the signal, used in conjunction with the spark and silent intervals to represent letters, numbers or symbols. 2. In poker and similar card games two of a kind and by extension a pair of anything (Virginian). 3. Breasts (Royal Navy, arch). ORIGIN uncertain: possible reference to Yorkshire dialect word ‘stut’ meaning a bull from the appearance of the signal in early semaphore stations or to OE ’stutte’ meaning to hesitate. First use: 1739 Travels of Charles Wesley, “ March 2d, 1739. I was at Mr. Sidebotham’s, with Mr. Farrant and others. I urged him to throw away his science, his sparks and his stutts; but he adhered to them with the greater obstinacy.”




State of the art in 1740

The idea of semaphore signals and electrics has stimulated interest in science and raised the profile of scientists and scientific institutions. There is now an obvious answer to the question “What use is science?” . The result is a fashion for science and a craze for electrics among the upper classes in England spreading rapidly throughout Europe. More wealthy amateur scientists will choose to look at physics rather than natural history and a boost will be given to the idea of natural laws.

However while this will change the life of individuals, particularly in the upper classes the total effect on society will be superficial. People will talk more about science but this will not translate into significant scientific advances. Although in this world scientific historians will trace the start of the industrial/scientific revolution to this period.

The Royal Navy is the only institution with both the money and will to consider building semaphores, instant communication between London and the western ports would be useful in the event of war and priceless in a Nor’Easterly wind. Luckily Charlsworth, although a clergyman comes from a Naval family and a second cousin of Sir Charles Wagner (First Lord Of the Admiralty at the time). Sullivan was captain of HMS Union when he invented the code. The result was a reasonably strong pro-semaphore faction in the Navy. The opposing faction considered the whole idea to be a waste of money and dispatch ships and couriers were quite adequate.
 
Thanks for Google - was afraid you'd being Islamophobic. (You know olde English slang isn't my first language) :D

Very interesting TL by the way...


Shite , (Rhymes with Kite) is traditional pronunciation in Northern England. The RSI has more than its fair share of norherners being based in York and with the growth of the electric industry in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
 

Thande

Donor
Interesting. The trouble with 'earlier development of X' TLs is that they often turn into sciencewank (and I'm not entirely innocent of that myself) but this seems fairly well researched.

What is particularly interesting is the impact of Newton's corpuscular theory of light being dominant - if this is the case, how will natural philosophers interpret what we call differing wavelength/frequency in radio signals? Perhaps they might consider a higher frequency to be a literally higher number of corpuscles being squirted out in a certain length of time? That would neatly tie in with E=hv, if that's also discovered earlier...
 
Thande

What we are talking about here are very primitive spark transmitters. Newton discovered them almost by accident and his theories of how they work were entirely wrong. For him the important quality was the mass of the corpuscle which is only vaguely analagous to frequency.
Since Newton has a higher reputation the battles between wave and particle supporters will be more intense and vitriolic.

Then of course we must consider the QWERTY effect on technology.

Actually I think the big change will be the development of electric motors and generators essentially before steam engines. This may have far reaching consequences.
 
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