William Whiston (1667–1752)

William Whiston was born at Norton-juxta-Twycross, Leicestershire where his father, Josiah Whiston (1622–1685), was Rector from 1661-1685. He attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Tamworth, Staffordshire and then Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics. He resigned his Fellowship in 1699 to marry Ruth Antrobus, the daughter of his headmaster at Tamworth School. He died in 1752 at Lyndon Hall, Rutland, his daughter and son-in-law's residence.

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Some pages from the fifth edition of A New Theory of the Earth.

In this book, Whiston sets out his ideas on the formation of the Earth. It has to be consistent with the creation story in Genesis, except that the people who wrote the Old Testament did not have the astronomical knowledge of Whiston's own time.

The book is over 400 pages long and discusses many aspects of the Earth. Whiston says that astronomical objects existed before the creation of the Earth in Genesis, and were moved to their current locations at the time of Genesis.

Before the deluge the was Earth perfect sphere in a circular orbit. There were no oceans, only lakes and rivers (p358, p370 and others). The air was thinner, with no rain, storms, thunder or lightning, the ground was watered by mists (p365). There were no rainbows (p367).

He writes that the water for forty days and forty nights of rain described in the Biblical flood came from Earth passing through the tail of a comet. The rest of the water came from the Fountains of the Great Deep.

The encounter with the comet also changed the shape of both the Earth and its orbit, and caused seasons and changeable weather, and the first rainbow.

Although the "dirty snowball" idea dates from 1950, suggested by Fred Whipple, water was not observed in a comet until 1986 in Comet Halley, using the International Ultraviolet Explorer. It is estimated that it lost 1.5 x 10⁸ tons (1.36 x 10⁸ tonnes) of water between September 1985 and the beginning of July 1986. There are about 1.54 x 10¹⁸ tons (1.4 x 10¹⁸ tonnes) of water on the surface of the Earth. Research showed that the water in Comet Hartley 2 is the same as that in the Earth's oceans. (Clavin and Perrotto, 2011). However, other results, such as from Rosetta (Altwegg et al, 2015), suggest that Earth's water may not have come from comets after all.

Immanuel Velikovsky, author of the now discredited Worlds in Collision, 1950, was aware of the work of William Whiston. Velikovsky also described a comet causing catastrophes on Earth. He claimed it had been ejected by Jupiter and later became the planet Venus.

The drawings on the wall show one of Whiston's methods of determining longitude. He suggested having a line of ships at fixed points across the ocean. They would fire a star shell at the same time each day. The distance of the shell would be calculated using the time taken for the sound to arrive after the flash of light was observed. He also suggested a method using variations in magnetic declination.

The paintings and engravings of Hogarth's A Rake's Progress differ. In 1763 Hogarth added the Britannia emblem to the engraving of "In the Madhouse" which covered some of the mathematical diagrams.

Note: Hogarth's work is political rather than scientific!

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The Global Positioning System (GPS) uses the time taken for a signal to travel from satellites to the ground to determine a location. Whilst this is not the same as William Whiston's proposal, both make measurements by timing signals.

(From: Wikimedia Commons)

As well as religion Astronomical Principles of Religion includes chapters on astronomy, for example: a diagram showing "The Copernican or true Solar System" opposite p34, "A Map of the Moon", opposite p67, drawings of Jupiter and Saturn, opposite p71. comets are members of the solar system p74, the fixed stars are much further away and of the same nature as the Sun p78

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The engraving on the left is based on a drawing by the novelist Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) of people in Tunbridge Wells in 1748. Dr. Johnson is on the extreme left and Whiston on the extreme right, walking away from the others.

From: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, August 1, 1829.

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In a letter, Richardson writes:

"Another extraordinary old man we have had here, but of a very different turn; the noted Mr. Whiston, showing eclipses, and explaining other phaenomena of the stars, and preaching the millennium, and anabaptism (for he is now, it seems, of that persuasion) to gay people, who, if they have white teeth, hear him with open mouths, though perhaps shut hearts; and after his lecture is over, not a bit the wiser, run from him, the more eagerly to C—r and W—sh, and to flutter among the loud-laughing young fellows upon the walks, like boys and girls at a breaking-up." (The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, 1829)

The character of Reverend Dr Charles Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith, (published in 1766) was probably based on William Whiston.

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