Field notes · Nº 27 3 min read Growth and ambition
Halley's Comet carries the name of the man who paid to print Newton's Principia.
The Royal Society had spent its funds on a history of fish.
So in 1686 Edmond Halley took on the printing at his own charge, corrected the proofs and saw the book out in 1687.
With Newton’s method he showed that the comets of 1531, 1607 and 1682 were one, and named 1758 for its return.
On Christmas night 1758, almost seventeen years after his death, it came back.
My favourite receipt in science is visible from Earth every 76 years or so.
A comet is the interest on a printing bill.
Which early bet on someone else’s work have you watched pay off?
Going deeper
One of the greatest books in science reached the world because one reader refused to let it wait.
In 1684 Edmond Halley went to Cambridge with a question that he and his colleagues in London could not settle. If the force holding a planet to the Sun weakens with the square of the distance, what shape is the orbit? Isaac Newton told him at once: an ellipse. He had worked it out, though he could not lay his hands on the calculation. Halley urged him to write the whole argument down. What came back, in time, was the Principia.
Then came the problem of paying for it. The Royal Society had committed its money to a history of fishes, De Historia Piscium, and it resolved that Halley should look after the book and print it at his own charge. He did more than pay. He edited the text, corrected the proofs and saw it through the press in 1687.
The return on that bill arrived slowly. Using the method of the Principia, Halley studied the comets recorded in 1531, 1607 and 1682, saw that their paths matched, and concluded that they were one comet coming back. He named 1758 for its next appearance. Halley died in January 1742. On Christmas night 1758, the German astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch saw it in the sky, and it has carried Halley’s name ever since.
There is a pattern here that runs through the history of great work. A brilliant mind is rarely alone. Next to it there is often someone who recognises the work early, removes an obstacle and asks for nothing in return. That person’s reward is usually invisible. Halley’s happens to be visible from Earth, roughly every 76 years.
Backing someone else’s best work is one of the quietest forms of ambition, and one of the longest-lasting.
Sources
Britannica: Edmond Halley · EBSCO Research Starters: Halley predicts the return of a comet · Wikipedia: De Historia Piscium · Linda Hall Library: Georg Palitzsch · NASA: 1P/Halley