Galileo

gal-l-lee'o (1564-1642), an Italian astronomer. A native of Florence. His father was a musician of slender means. He was proud of his boy and contrived with painful sacrifices to give him a good education, sending him to the university at Pisa to study medicine. Galileo, however, took to mathematics and scientific investigations. There is a tradition that, watching a great bronze lamp in the Cathedral at Pisa while a student, he noticed, by counting his pulse, that the lamp took no more time to swing far out to one side than when the swing was scarcely noticeable. Following the matter up, he discovered the laws of the pendulum; that a short pendulum swings oftener than a long one; that a heavy pendulum and a light pendulum of the same length swing in the same time; and that whether a pendulum swings far or slightly, all the swings of the same pendulum are made in the same length of time. At all events he is credited with the enunciation of the laws. His growing reputation secured him a position as professor of mathematics at Pisa. Bitter opposition from the other professors, however, which indeed began before he was admitted to the faculty, finally drove Galileo from Pisa and from Florence. He was at last made professor of mathematics at Padua under the protection of Venice.

Galileo was one of the most inventive men the world has ever seen. He invented or improved the barometer, the thermometer, the pendulum, hydraulic machines, military machines, the compass, the telescope, the microscope, and a large number of other contrivances of less note. His house at Padua was a perfect machine shop, Galileo the master mechanic. His greatest invention, however, was the telescope. He had heard in the year 1608 of an instrument in Flanders that enabled the people to see far off. This hint set him at work. He made his first telescope out of an old organ pipe and a pair of lenses. In 1609 he carried a finished telescope to Venice, and from the top of a tall bell tower the senators and nobles looked out upon the Adriatic. Ships that had sailed out of sight were brought back apparently near the shore; far off islands were as clearly seen as though they were at the spectator's feet. The Venetians saw at once that the telescope would change the management of armies and lessen the dangers of sailing. They were practical men and realized the value of a field glass. To understand their pleasure and astonishment, we must remember that this was the first field glass or telescope ever used. The Venetians sent Galileo back to Padua loaded with honors and fixed his salary at a princely sum. Princes and nobles made requests for telescopes. Galileo manufactured over a hundred of these instruments and presented one each to the sovereigns of France, Austria, and Spain.

He accepted an invitation to return to Florence, his native town, where he hoped to lead a life of pleasure and investigation. In the meantime the bitterest opposition had sprung up. Education in the Roman Church was in the hands of a particular sect or society, the Jesuits. They were the learned men of Europe, and were exceedingly jealous--naturally so--of scientific progress not originating with themselves. Unfortunately for Galileo, the Jesuits had long taught that the earth is the center of the universe and that the heavens revolve around it. They taught that the stars were in all probability spiritual lights. They held that the Scriptures taught these doctrines, and that the church alone had the right to say what the Scriptures taught. One of Galileo's first discoveries, as he turned his telescope toward the heavens, was that the moon, whose silvery face had beamed unchanged for generations, was really a wild waste of mountains and deep ravines. His telescope resolved the milky way into a host of stars. Galileo announced that he had added millions of stars to the heavens. Looking at Jupiter he saw that it was attended by small stars. He saw the rings of Saturn. In a book, A Message from the Skies, he published his discoveries, and took the position that the earth turns on its axis and revolves about the sun. This was the theory of Copernicus, which had been outlawed by the Jesuits. Intense excitement followed. The progressive people of the day hailed Galileo as a great astronomer and rejected the teaching of the Jesuits, practically forming themselves into a new sect, or at the least, what constituted a large element of unbelief in the church. It was hard enough for the Jesuits to tolerate a rising scientist whose views disagreed with their own and whose reputation for learning surpassed their own. When it came to the creation of a large body of followers who rejected the interpretation of the Scriptures given by the church, the matter became exceedingly serious.

Luther and other reformers had made trouble enough. Galileo was summoned to appear before the grand inquisition in Rome, and was advised, on pain of imprisonment, to assert that he did not believe in the Copernican doctrine; that he did not teach it; and that he would abide by the teachings of the church. He promised. The interesting part of Galileo's life was over. He went to Rome, a learned, distinguished man, high in the favor of princes and men of high position. He returned to Florence humiliated, discredited, disgraced, under suspicion. His admirers were mortified to think he had recanted his views, and the people of the church hated him for his heresy. Nevertheless, he was permitted to settle down at home in peace. He might have continued his scientific investigations unmolested if he had been prudent. He smarted under the treatment he had received, however, and, though under promise not to teach or defend his astronomical theories, he was rash enough to publish his Dialogue, in which three persons discuss astronomical theories. A young scientist announces his views with enthusiasm, but, by the authority and argument of his elders, he is forced finally to withdraw his views in deference to their superior knowledge and sanctity. The inquisition summoned Galileo to Rome again and made him apologize on his knees. But the story is too long to be told here. Galileo was kept in nominal confinement for a number of years, but was allowed finally to return home. Blindness came over him. He ended his days peacefully at Florence and was buried in the church of Santa Croce.

Galileo was a fine musician, having been trained by his father to play on the organ and the lute. He was a careful student of poetry and excelled in painting. He was an able writer. It is a matter of regret that so able a man might not have been permitted to investigate and invent in peace; but his treatment was only what a teacher of new doctrines must have expected in that day when all religious teaching was intolerant.

See Astronomy; Copernicus; Telescope; Ptolemy