Discoveries

Induction: M. de St. Hillaire in his translations of the treatise De anima of Aristotle, states that Bacon claimed to be the first discoverer of induction.

Origin of Language: Grimm, in his Origin of Language, states that Bacon was probably the first to propose a question to the origin of language as is seen in his De Aug., Book VI.

Essays in Britain: Though not quite the very first English Essayist, it was Bacon that established in England this new species of writing. (Edward Arber: A Harmony of the Essays, 1895)

Production of heat by friction: Spedding, Ellis, and Heath confess that Joule and Thomson ascribe the discovery of Production of heat by friction to Sir Humphrey Davy (Beddoes: Contributions to Physical and Medical Knowledge, P.14). “However,” they say “though Davy’s experiments guard against sources of error of which Bacon takes no notice, the merit of having perceived the true significance of the Production of heat by friction belongs right to Bacon.”

Thermometer: It’s an invention ascribed to Bacon as he covers this object in his Nov. Org., Aphorismorum XII.

Robertus Fludd was the first to publish an account of the thermometer, and in Viviani’s Life of Galileo, it’s said that Galileo invented the thermometer between 1593 and 1597.

A letter is preserved in the library of Nelli’s library of his family in copiâ which Castelli addressed to Cesarina in 1638. Castelli says that, more than thirty-five years before, Galileo had shown him an experiment, which he describes, namely, the rise of the water into an inverted tube with a bulb at one extremity, when the open end of the tube is put into a vessel of water. But this experiment had already been described in Porta’s Natural Magic, Vol. XIX, Ch. 4.

Vivisection: Bacon and Shakespeare had both investigated vivisection before Dr. Harvey ever demonstrated it or brought it to the public.

Columbus: Bacon, in his Hist. Vent., refers to one story by Oviedo in 1535, that a vessel in 1484 going from Spain to England was driven out of its course so far as to reach the West Indies; that on their return home all the crew, which had been reduced to the pilot and three or four sailors, were sick, and shortly afterwards died; that the pilot died in the house of Columbus, and that from him Columbus obtained exclusive possession of the discovery, which had been accidentally made. (Ramusios. Collection of Voyages, 1606, Vol. III. p. 1a., & p. 64. c).

Roger Bacon talks of this route in his Opus Majus (1410) that was taken from the works of Aristotle, Pliny and Seneca. (Vaugham: Anthroposopia Theomagica).

Verulam House: Shortly after Sir Thomas Meautys died, his widow married Sir Harbottle Grimston. Sir Harbottle Grimston bought Gorhambury estate back from Henry Meautys, and resided in it with his wife. His son George lived in the smaller house on the estate called Verulam House, which was afterwards pulled down. This Verulam House is the small pile of beauty that Aubrey refers to in his Lives.

Stratford Monument: The actor is seen resting his hand, quill in hand, on a woolsack. When Elizabeth went to open Parliament (1571) Sir Nicholas Bacon was present, and sat upon the woolsack, and delivered an oration in the Queen’s name to the members of both Houses. He was not permitted to take part in the Lords’ debates, although he sat on the woolsack as their Speaker. This arrangement often led to unpleasant incidents, for Nicholas Bacon was obliged to listen to attacks upon him, and remain silent. He sometimes signified his dissent by “a peculiar cough,” or playing impatiently with his “walking-stick.”

It is an irregularity that Shaksper and Nicholas Bacon both used a woolsack to rest either a pen or a ham-bottom.