Fr. Dannemann. How Did Our Picture of the World Arise?

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FR. DANNEMANN. HOW DID OUR PICTURE

OF THE WORLD ARISE?

(KOSMOS). STUTTGART, 1912

(Nat. XII. 456) In this pamphlet the author gives a kind of summary of his four-volume work: “Naturwissenschaf- ten in ihrer Entwicklung und in ihrem Zusammenhange”...

About 5,000 years of the development of civilisation from ancient Egypt to our time. According to Homer, the world was		(((Much pop-ularisa- tion...)))
only the Mediterranean Sea and surround- ing countries. (P. 8) In Egypt the clear nights facilitated the pursuit of astronomy. They observed the stars and their movement, the moon, etc.		The author carelessly, pompously, vulgarly, in feuilleton style outlines philosophical questions, banal.
At first the month was reckoned as 30days, and the year as 360 (p. 31). The an- cient Egyptians already had 365 days. (P. 32) Eratosthenes (276 B.C.) determined the circumference of the earth as 250,000 “stadia” = 45,000 km. (instead of 40,000). Aristarchus guessed that the earth re- volved round the sun, p. 37 (1,800 years before Copernicus, 1473-1543). (Third cen- tury B.C.) he considered the moon to be 3 0 (instead of 48) times smaller than the earth, and the sun to be 300 (instead of 1,300,000) times larger than the earth....		The booklet is neither here nor there: for a philosophical work it is careless, sen- tentious, pet- ty, banal;— for a popular work it is pretentious.

Ptolemy’s system (second century A.D.) fifteenth century: the revival of astronomy—con- nection with navigation. Copernicus (1473-1543): heliocentric system. Circles (not ellipses). ((Only in the middle of the nineteenth century im- proved measuring instru ments showed alteration in the appearance of the fixed stars)) Galileo—(1564-1642). Kepler—(1571-1630). Newton—(1643-1727). the telescope and so forth ((discovery of more than 20 million stars, etc.)) flattening of the earth at the poles — 1/229 dia- meter |instead of 1/299|

Pythagoras (sixth centu- ry B.C.) the world is gov- erned by number: and mea- sure.... The four elements, sub- stances, of the ancient phi- losophers: earth, fire, water, air.... Democritus (fifth centu- ry B.C.): atoms... seventeenth century: chemical elements. Spectral analysis (1860) Electricity, etc. Law of conservation of force.