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Pulling Harriot Out of Newton’s Shadow: How the Norwegian Outsider Johannes Lohne Came to Contribute to Mainstream History of Mathematics

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Historiography of Mathematics in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Part of the book series: Trends in the History of Science ((TRENDSHISTORYSCIENCE))

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Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the peculiarities of Lohne ’s “outsider approach” to the historiography of mathematics and physics. The main thesis is that the circumstances of Lohne ’s outsider position both narrowed down and sharpened the focus of his research, but that he succeeded because he joined the then rising tide of archival based and content oriented internalist research in the history of physics and mathematics and because he was supported by scholars such as D.T. Whiteside and J.E. Hofmann , whose connections to the international community were better than his own. The main conclusions are based on Lohne ’s Nachlass in Oslo and on some other archival sources. In addition Lohne ’s publications are used, which were mostly in English and German, and partly in Norwegian. We do not, however, discuss Lohne ’s contributions to the historiography of mathematics and physics in any detail, because they are published and accessible. We merely sum up two outstanding results of Lohne ’s research on Thomas Harriot (1560–1621), concerning the discovery of the sine law of light refraction and the calculation of the Mercator map, in order to stress the quality of his work and his critical mind and to give some idea about his historical method. Concluding the paper we reflect once again, on the basis of our biographical evidence in the case of Lohne , and with some emphasis on Scandinavia, on the relative notions of the “outsider” and the “main stream” within the process of professionalization of the historiography of mathematics and sciences in the second half of the 20th century.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    More details about Lohne ’s life, as well as about his political actions before he became a historian, one finds in Siegmund-Schultze (2010) and in a forthcoming scientific biography of Lohne in Norwegian, written by Rolf Nossum and the present author. It will be published by Novus Publishers Oslo in 2016.

  2. 2.

    “Lektor Johannes August Lohne , Cand. Real, Adresse: Flekkefjord. Født i Flekkefjord 1908. Studerte realfag ved Universitetet i Oslo, er nå lektor i Den høgre skolen. Har dessuten drevet kildestudier over fysikkens historie ved British Museum og i Cambridge. ‘Mine interesser har gjennom årene gjennomløpet følgende stadier: historie, språk, realfag, detektivromaner, og i det siste tiår har jeg forent disse interesser i studiet av realvitenskapenes historie, hvor det som regel viser seg, likesom i detektivromanene, at alt forholder seg annerledes enn godtfolk tror.’” (Naturen 87 (1963), 3: 192).

  3. 3.

    “Skjønt Heegaard oppmuntret sine studenter til å lese i Euklid, er det først under mine Englandreiser at jeg fikk nøyere kjennskap til Euklids ’Elementer.’ I et antikvariat kom jeg over en engelsk utgave, oversatt og kommentert av Sir Thomas Heath .” The former high school pupil is Bernt Øksendal , today a prominent Norwegian mathematician in Oslo. He keeps the Nachlass of Lohne , to which I will refer repeatedly in this article. The quote is from a letter by Lohne to Øksendal , 12 February 1992.

  4. 4.

    A detailed study of Drachmann and what he had in common with Lohne cannot be pursued here. While both stressed the importance of instruments and experiments in the history of science and technology, their style in writing on theoretical science seems to have been very different, with Lohne being much more mathematical in his approach (Cf. Drachmann 1967).

  5. 5.

    “I denne forbindelse kan det være av interesse å nevne at man nylig ved det tekniske universitet i Vest-Berlin har opprettet en lærestol for de eksakte videnskapers og teknikkens historie. Både professoren og en av assistentene er matematikk-historikere.”

  6. 6.

    About ten years ago the late professor Scriba kindly sent me copies of these documents, including an interesting autograph by Brun , who published occasionally in the history of mathematics, in particular pertaining to his field of number theory. From Brun ’s autograph we will quote below.

  7. 7.

    “Det bemerkes at både Danmark og Sverige har lærestoler i naturvitenskapenes historie og at de utgir internasjonale tidsskrift på dette område, nemlig publikasjonene Centaurus og Lychnos. Vitenskapelige og tekniske framskritt og nye idéer dér har vel bidratt mer til vår sivilisasjon enn kongers kriger og statsmenns kløkt. Så Norge må vel omsider satse noe også på realvitenskapenes historie.” (From Lohne ’s Nachlass with Bernt Øksendal in Oslo).

  8. 8.

    “Matematikkens historie er sørgelig forsømt i norsk skole.” (Lohne 1961b, 591).

  9. 9.

    “Så meget av den tradisjonelle fysikk vil med stor sannsynlighet bevare sin verdi at man burde unngå å tvangsfore gymnasiaster med stoff som i den form det nå presenteres, har liten sjanse å overleve. Vårt århundres fusjon av optikk og atomfysikk skyver en del av lyslæren utover i leseplan og lærebøker.” (Lohne 1971, 4).

  10. 10.

    Brun ’s autograph, which is dated 4 October 1970, also contains a congratulation for Scriba to the election of Willy Brandt as chancellor, whom Brun called “one of the few great politicians of our time.” (“In meinen Augen ist er einer der wenigen grossen Politiker unserer Zeit”). It seems unlikely to this author that Scriba or Lohne would have approved of this political statement.

  11. 11.

    In Lohne ’s Nachlass there is for example the draft of a talk in Norwegian on “Kepler and religion” from about 1952.

  12. 12.

    “ Newton og fargelæren. …. Newton synes ikke å ha vært noen fremragende observator, for hans nitid utførte eksperimenter skulle også ha lært ham andre ting enn det han så. Men han ønsket kun å se det han, etter sin forut oppstilte teori, ventet å få se” (Lohne to the Norwegian Research Council, November 29, 1957, Riksarkiv Oslo.).

  13. 13.

    “Kort oversikt over Newton forskningen hittil.” Published in English translation with commentary by Niccolò Guicciardini in Siegmund-Schultze (2010, 589–593). The following quote is reproduced there p. 589.

  14. 14.

    “Av nålevende er det antagelig bare professor J.E. Hofmann som har slik oversikt over det 17. århundres matematikk at han kan gi en fullstendig og pålitelig vurdering av Newtons innsats her.”

  15. 15.

    “Analyse av Newtons arbeide med prismefargene … Her har jeg forsøkt å analysere tabeller, apparater og målingsmetoder. Det har vist seg at en mer overfladisk beretning og resonnering ikke strekker til. Der må kontrollregning og kontrollforsøk til. Slik nøyaktig analyse er for lengst tatt i bruk i matematikkens historie (Jos. E. Hofmann og O. Neugebauer ), men hittil ikke i fysikkens historie” (Lohne to the Norwegian Research Council, December 1958, Riksarkiv Oslo.).

  16. 16.

    Cohen (1980, 55). Cohen refers here to the paper (Lohne 1968). In the last sentence, Cohen quotes the concluding words in Lohne (1965b, 138).

  17. 17.

    Harriot ’s book was temporarily lost, as reported in Siegmund-Schultze (2010). It has now been retraced by a Norwegian journalist, maybe partly influenced by our publications on Lohne .

  18. 18.

    Note that the position of the image is not quite according to modern optical theory, but this does not affect the direction (angles) of the light rays.

  19. 19.

    The German part of the original is: “Lieber Prof. Hofmann . Ihre Hilfsbereitschaft hat mich tief gerührt. Nach der Optik wende ich mich zu der Mathematik Harriotts, doch mit einer gewissen Angst:” The correspondence between Lohne and Hofmann is kept at the Leopoldina Academy in Halle (Germany), see below.

  20. 20.

    J. Pepper wrote to me 3 March 2012: “This is not as strange as it might seem, as it is not mentioned in David Waters ’ monumental Art of Navigation & c & c” Cf. (Waters 1958).

  21. 21.

    As for instance expressed by Whiteside in a seminar in 1983, see below. Qualifications seem to be needed though, for instance in comparison between Harriot ’s and John Wallis ’s contribution.

  22. 22.

    There was a controversial discussion around 1830 between the German-Austrian astronomer Franz von Zach (1754–1832) and the professor at Oxford Stephen Peter Rigaud (1774–1839) on a possible edition of Harriot ’s papers, in which, paradoxically, the Englishman advised against publication. Lohne published a paper on that discussion and may have felt in a similar position as once the other foreigner Zach: “The feud was paradoxical. A German blazoned abroad outstanding discoveries of the English Harriott. The English professors from Harriott’s university did their utmost to conjure the inopportune Harriott back again into relative obscurity.” (Lohne 1963a, 69).

  23. 23.

    Norwegian Research Council, file Johannes Lohne , copy of Whiteside ’s abstract from 28 April 1983.

  24. 24.

    “Wallis ’s treatment still stands as the most thorough and detailed analysis of Harriot ’s algebra to date” (Stedall 2000, 489).

  25. 25.

    Gradually to be extended under the auspices of ECHO (European Cultural Heritage Online) at http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/home.

  26. 26.

    Thanks to M. Folkerts (Munich) who deposited the letters there and gave me access to them in advance.

  27. 27.

    “Ich kenne Herrn Lohne von zahlreichen Oberwolfach-Tagungen Ende der 1960er und Anfang der 1970er Jahre. Er hat … vor allem über Harriot vorgetragen. Er kam immer mit Frau …. Mit Hofmann verband ihn eine Art Freundschaft (sofern Hofmann überhaupt Freunde hatte). Lohnes Vorträge waren klar; er sprach vorzüglich deutsch, und er war sehr freundlich. Mir kam er wie ein isolierter Einzelgänger vor”.

  28. 28.

    Lohne (1961a). Lohne puts the word “proof” in the title into ironic quotation marks. The word ‘iconoclastic’ is ours here. It is not in the letter.

  29. 29.

    Maybe in the future some correspondence may be found in Whiteside ’s Nachlass.

  30. 30.

    Lohne too had some deficits in communicating with people on a private basis. Personal information by M. Folkerts , and I. Grattan-Guinness who met him in Oberwolfach and described him as shy and reclusive.

  31. 31.

    For a biographical account cf. (Guicciardini 2009).

  32. 32.

    Whiteside indicates e.g. that he used Lohne (1960) with benefit for his edition of Newton ’s manuscript “On Motion” (Whiteside 1974, 80, 151).

  33. 33.

    Some results of this work by Lohne of 1960 on Hooke and Newton are even today appreciated by the Newton specialist N. Guicciardini , cf. (Siegmund-Schultze 2010, 571).

  34. 34.

    Cf. the Tanner Papers at the Liverpool University Archives.

  35. 35.

    Lohne to Hofmann , 4 February, 1966, Hofmann Papers, Leopoldina Academy in Halle “Angehörigen kleiner Nationen”. In the same letter Lohne mentions in passing that he did not know what a “Habilitation” was when he heard about this second German academic degree, which had been recently conferred to Hofmann ’s student C. Scriba .

  36. 36.

    This forced Lohne to take a supplementary exam to his high school exam in Oslo in order to be admitted to study physics at the university.

  37. 37.

    In mathematics Lohne received the exceptional mark “particularly satisfactory” (særdeles tilfredsstillende) which also became the overall mark of his school diploma. A copy of the school diploma is contained in Lohne ’s Nachlass with B. Øksendal in Oslo.

  38. 38.

    Lohne ’s German was good, as for instance described by Folkerts above, but not perfect, evidenced not just by his letters but also by his publications, even after having received help in language editing.

  39. 39.

    Lohne 1963b: “Dream of the moon”, the word “månen” in the title being misspelled.

  40. 40.

    Lohne on 5 April 1960 to Norwegian Research Council. Riksarkiv Oslo.

  41. 41.

    The whole passage containing a short description of Harriot ’s scientific results by Lohne is quoted as appendix E 1975 in (Siegmund-Schultze 2010).

  42. 42.

    This passage has been re-published by me as an appendix (E 1973) to (Siegmund-Schultze 2010).

  43. 43.

    As documented in the appendix of Siegmund-Schultze (2010), which contains drafts of tables of contents of two books which Lohne planned but which were never published.

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Acknowledgments

I thank my colleague Rolf Nossum (Kristiansand) for advice with respect to content and language. Bernt Øksendal (Oslo) and Menso Folkerts (Munich) receive thanks for providing archival material related to Lohne . The editors of the present volume deserve thanks for various recommendations with respect to content and form.

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  1. Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Agder, Gimlemoen 25a, Postboks 422, 4604, Kristiansand S, Norway

    Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze

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Correspondence to Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze .

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  1. Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung (IZWT), Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

    Volker R. Remmert

  2. Institut für Mathematik, AG Geschichte der Mathematik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Martina R. Schneider

  3. Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Henrik Kragh Sørensen

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Siegmund-Schultze, R. (2016). Pulling Harriot Out of Newton’s Shadow: How the Norwegian Outsider Johannes Lohne Came to Contribute to Mainstream History of Mathematics. In: Remmert, V., Schneider, M., Kragh Sørensen, H. (eds) Historiography of Mathematics in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Trends in the History of Science. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39649-1_11

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