14. The Shape of the Earth

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. PREFACE vii
3. CONTENTS xi
4. Illustrations xiv
5. Abbreviations xviii
6. INTRODUCTION 1
7. PART I. The Petrine Era
8. 1. Did Peter the Great Meet Newton? 9
9. 2. Flamsteed, Halley, Newton, and the "Collonel" 19
10. 3. Russia's First Newtonian 33
11. 4. Prince Menshikov's Exchange of Letters with Newton 45
12. "Worlds within Worlds" 50
13. 6. Bruce as Translator and Instrument Maker 61
14. 7. Newton and the Naval Academy 78
15. PART II. NEWTON AND THE ST. PETERSBURG ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
16. 8. The Foundation of the Academy and the Death of Newton 93
17. 9. The Principal Objections to the Cartesian Theory 97
18. 10. Newtonian Physics at the New Academy 102
19. 11. The Opening Controversy Over Gravitation 106
20. 12. Bilfinger and James Jurin 112
21. 13. "Il Propagatore del Newtonianismo" 116
22. 14. The Shape of the Earth 128
23. 15. Newton's Experiments with Light, and the Controversy Over "vis viva" 138
24. 16. Electricity and Action at a Distance 152
25. 17. Newton, Lomonosov, and Christian Wolff 165
26. 18. Lomonosov and the Opticks 185
27. 19. A New Kind of Newtonian Telescope? 200
28. 20. Newton in the Catherinian Era 211
29. Conclusion 231
30. APPENDIX I 241
31. APPENDIX II 243
32. BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE 247
33. BIBLIOGRAPHY 257
34. Index 287
35. Backmatter 347