Early American Science in Kansas City

The Linda Hall Library in Kansas City is featuring a small but mighty display of publications titled “Promoting Useful Knowledge: The American Philosophical Society and Science in Early America.”

The items include:

• Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia.
• The first U.S. edition of John Muller’s A Treatise of Artillery, published in 1779 during the war.
• Almanacs published by Dr. Nathaniel Ames of Dedham and Isaiah Thomas.

The label on the Thomas almanac says, “after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Thomas had to move his press from Boston to Worcester to prevent his own arrest and that of his printers, and to prevent the presses from being seized and destroyed by the British.”

Thomas left Boston just before the war began to feel safe from the British army. Timothy Bigelow and other Worcester Patriots assured him he could sell newspapers in their town.

Thomas hoped to gain the printing business of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, but then Benjamin Edes set up in Watertown and Samuel and Ebenezer Hall moved their press from Salem to Cambridge. Thomas got the contract to print the congress’s report on the opening battle and nothing else, but he did become Worcester’s postmaster.

Back to the Linda Hall Library exhibit. Its anchor is a copy of Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1753, describing Benjamin Franklin’s first electrical experiments and showing a transit of the planet Mercury.

That almanac was loaned to the library by the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia after a bet on the outcome of last winter’s Super Bowl. (The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38–35.) The story behind the exhibit is thus itself notable.

I was also intrigued by the story behind the Linda Hall Library. Herbert and Linda Hall left a multimillion-dollar bequest to establish “a free public library for the use of the people of Kansas City.” In post–World War Two America, the trustees decided that institution should be dedicated to scientific and technical information.

The Linda Hall Library started by purchasing the collection of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780 by James Bowdoin and other Enlightened gentlemen from newly independent Massachusetts. Which probably explains why it holds so many almanacs from New England.

A Heavy Three-Pounder in Sturbridge

Among the cannon to be fired at this weekend’s “Redcoats and Rebels” encampment at Old Sturbridge Village, I expect, will be the iron three-pounder that the museum village put back into service for Independence Day.

That gun, called a “heavy 3-pounder” because it’s about the size and weight of a light six-pounder, was made in the 1970s by the LaPans Foundry in Hudson Falls, New York. Old Sturbridge Village bought it for a negligible price a few years ago but has invested lots of resources into refurbishing the barrel and building a carriage. That matches what I found for the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1774-75: it had to budget much more for new cannon carriages than for the used cannon themselves.

As the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported, the museum craftsmen modeled their field carriage after those shown in John Muller’s A Treatise of Artillery (London, 1768). Blacksmith Derek Heidemann told the newspaper, “We were able to find an artillery manual that was printed in Massachusetts in 1817. It shows the same exact style of carriage and says the style of carriage that is devised by John Muller is still the one used by the Commonwealth. Now that’s 1817, but given that the U.S. government itself is having issues putting together carriages for the regular army, we think this is still the kind of carriage that is being used by the state militia in Massachusetts in the 1830s.”

The newspaper also prepared a video about the Old Sturbridge Village cannon project.

Muller on the Art of War

John Muller was a professor of artillery and fortification at the Royal Academy at Woolwich, where the British army trained its artillerists and military engineers. In the preface to his The Attac and Defence of Fortified Places, second edition published in London in 1757, Muller wrote:

IF, in the Art of War Courage alone was sufficient, a Treatise on this Subject in England would be superfluous; who from the lowest to the highest Subject are celebrated for this Virtue; but as it oft happens, that Enemies that dare not appear in the open Field, may retire into fortified Places, and there by Art and Stratagems destroy those Troops which before they durst not Face.

For which Reason this Work was compiled, to furnish Means to such brave Men to avoid engaging on disadvantageous Terms, and to excite in them a Desire to apply their natural Genius to the Knowledg of all the different Occurrences which happen in their Station during the Course of a War, how to defend themselves, or to attac an Enemy with Advantage, and to save Lives so much as possible, in conducting the Works of a Siege with Skill and Prudence.

There is no Part of the Art of War that requires more Capacity, Knowledge, and Judgment. The Success of a Battle is oft owing to Chance; a first Firing doing more Execution on one side than the other, an advantageous Situation, a Party flanking the Army unperceived; some extraordinary Action performed by some Men or Officer; a sudden Wind or heavy Rain in the Face of an Army; a pannick, Terror, or in short any unforeseen Accident, may contribute to the Gain or Loss of a Battle, and that oft on the Side who had least Reason to expect it. History, ancient and modern, furnish so many Examples of this Kind, that it is needless to enumerate them.

But when required to attac an Enemy in a Place strongly fortified, or when the Fortune of War obliges a General to defend himself in such a Place, against a numerous Army well provided, who find Means to approach the Works under Cover, beat them down with their Cannon, or blow them up with Mines, and ruin all their Defences; it is then that Courage and Fortune are obliged to submit to Knowledge and Experience.

There have been many brave Officers, provided with a good Garrison, and every thing requisite to make a brave Defence, who, thro’ want of a competent Knowledge, were not able to preserve a fortified Place to their Prince or Nation, or to take one; when, on the contrary, Men endued with less Bravery and more Knowledge, have succeeded in their Undertakings.

I love how this preface flatters its audience while also arguing that they really, really need to learn this stuff.

(The image above shows Fort George Ardesier in Scotland, constructed between 1747 and 1769.)