Showing posts with label Robinson Crusoe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robinson Crusoe. Show all posts

May 8 - Happy Birthday, Henry Baker

Posted on May 8, 2021


This is an update of my post published on Mary 8, 2010:

On this day in 1698, Henry Baker was born in London, England.


 He is known for three things:
(1) Baker developed a new way to teach the hearing- and speech-impaired (known then as “the deaf and dumb”). He was able to make a lot of money with his system - which he kept strictly secret.

(2) Baker was the son-in-law of the writer Daniel Defoe. Defoe wrote a lot of things, but nowadays he is most famous for the book Robinson Crusoe, which is considered by many to be the first novel written in English.
(Why only considered the first novel by many, and not all? Because different scholars have different definitions of the word novel.)
Robinson Crusoe is a castaway on a remote tropical island who meets Native Americans and mutineers and has all sorts of adventures before finally being rescued—28 years later!
Baker used Defoe's name and fame when he launched a weekly publication filled with essays; it was called the Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal, and it ran about 18 years, with more than 900 issues.

 

(3) Baker introduced the microscope to the general public with several publications, including The Microscope Made Easy.


Science popularizers are important because they increase interest in and understanding of science in the general population, and THAT often encourages young people to study science. 
Also, Baker won a medal for his microscopical observations of salt crystals.

Baker's interests were varied. We can celebrate him by trying a variety of activities ourselves.
(1) Have you ever wanted to learn sign language? ASL (American Sign Language) and BSL (British Sign Language) are complete languages, each with its own grammar.

 

(By the way, the two languages are quite different.)
Here are some resources to try them out: an ASL video dictionary and text dictionary ...and ASL lessons here and here.
For BSL: an introductory video, short dictionary and resources.

 

(2) Here is a super short summary of Robinson Crusoe. And here is the complete version, free online. WARNING: like many old books, this book is horribly racist.
What would you do if you were shipwrecked? Write a story. Maybe you can get rescued in 28 days, rather than 28 years!


(3) Play a "guess what it is?" with microscopic looks at ordinary items. 
If you have a microscope, look at all sorts of things from a human hair to a drop of pond water, from a thread to a leaf.
Above, a human hair; below, wing of a fly 

Above, pond water; below, plant cells

If you don't have access to a microscope, check out this virtual microscope website.
Here's a virtual electron scanning microscope.
Above, butterfly scales; below, an ant's head


 


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July 31 - Of Public Punishment and Flowers

Posted on July 31, 2019

Freedom of the press is an important thing - especially when used to let people know that the rich or powerful - and especially the rich AND powerful! - are doing shady things to grab even more money or to keep their power.

And freedom of religion is also super important. Of course governments should not insist that all of their citizens worship one or more god or goddess, in one particular way! Of course citizens should have the right to believe in any or no religion, and if they hold religious beliefs, they should be able to do any lawful activity to practice those beliefs.

But back when author Daniel Defoe was living (1659 - 1731), these freedoms weren't as obvious. Back then, many, many rulers had and used the power to punish people for criticizing their decisions, and most nations had a state church (temple, etc.) or official religion; many - but not all - nations required its citizens to belong to the state church (etc.) and punished or discriminated against those who didn't. 

Defoe was an Englishman, and in 1702 the King of England, William III, died and was replaced on the throne by Queen Anne. She immediately began to punish what was called "Nonconformists," people who didn't belong to or believe in the Church of England.

One of the people Queen Anne moved to punish was Defoe. He had written a lot of political pamphlets, and one satirized those who pushed for everyone to belong to the Church of England. In other words, he used what should have been his right to freedom of the press to criticize those who go against freedom of religion. It was a sort of pro-rights "two-fer." 

Daniel Defoe was arrested for "seditious libel" - in other words, publishing criticism of the government. He had three punishments: he had to pay a fine, he had to stay in prison until the fine was paid, and - on this date in 1703 - he had to be locked in a pillory.

A pillory was a device set up in a public square. It had three holes meant to secure the head and two hands. It was supposed to be all about public humiliation plus uncomfortable, even painful, corporal punishment.

The public was encouraged to insult, laugh at, or taunt whoever was locked into a pillory. Even more, the public was encouraged to throw yucky stuff at the prisoner. You know, slop water, rotten vegetables, mud, dead animals, the guts from a butchered animals, even poop.

This picture shows yucky stuff, including dead
animals, being thrown at several prisoners
locked into multiple pillories.

Once in a while, the jeering, mocking, pelting public got too carried away, and the prisoner in the pillory would get badly hurt as people threw stones or bricks at him or her. 

Now, supposedly, when Daniel Defoe was put into the pillory for criticizing the government, he was a hero to the general public. Instead of pelting him with disgusting, foul-smelling stuff, people threw flowers. Or so the story goes.



One thing is for sure: most people who get put into the pillory had a worse reputation after the public punishment. But Defoe ended up becoming more respected and more famous after his punishment.

By the way, if you think to yourself, "I've never heard of him - I don't know how famous he could be!" - have you ever heard of his book Robinson Crusoe?







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November 22 – Discovery of Robinson Crusoe Island

Posted on November 22, 2014

How do you spot little dots of land out in an enormous ocean?

Many islands are easily seen because they lie quite close to a continent. But the islands that Spanish sailor Juan Fernandez spotted on this date in 1574 lie hundreds of miles off the coast of what is now Chile, in South America.




The truth is, Fernandez probably spotted the islands because of his handy-dandy southward sea route.

You see, near the west coast of South America, from Chile to northern Peru, there is a cold current that runs northward. Fernandez wanted to sail southward, so he went far out, away from the coast – and that's when he spotted the islands.

There are three Juan Fernandez Islands (as the group is now called). Fernandez named the outermost island Mas Afuera, which roughly translates to “Farther Out to Sea,” the innermost island Mas a Tierra, which roughly translates to “Closer to Land,” and the middle island Santa Clara (“Saint Claire”).

For hundreds of years, the islands were rarely visited by humans other than pirates in hiding. In 1703, some privateers (pirates working for their country) ran into problems with a leaky ship. One of the sailors, the sailing master named Alexander Selkirk, demanded that he be put ashore one of those islands (Mas a Tierra)--even though the island was completely uninhabited.

Selkirk was indeed put to shore on that island...and marooned there. He lived on that island alone for about four years!

Later, after Selkirk was rescued and returned to England, he became famous for surviving alone for so long. Scholars believed that Selkirk's exploits were the inspiration for Daniel Dafoe's famous book Robinson Crusoe.


Actually, the name of the book is The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

Because of the fame of that books, the Juan Fernandez Islands were renamed:

Mas a Tierra (the island where Selkirk lived for four years) became Robinson Crusoe Island.

Mas Afuera became Alejandro Selkirk Island.

Santa Clara, however, remained Santa Clara.

Notice that the "fur seals" are not true
seals, but are in fact sea lions.
(You can tell because they have
external ears!)
There are very few land animals on the islands, with no native land mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Some mammals such as goats and rats have been brought to the accident either on purpose or on accident. (I will leave it to you to guess which was brought accidentally!) The native animals are mostly birds, including some nesting penguins! Also, some fur seals live on the islands.

Nowadays, however, some people live on the islands. Alejandro Selkirk is home to around 57 people, and Robinson Crusoe is home to around 843. Santa Clara is still uninhabited.

To learn more about Robinson Crusoe, check out this earlier post. 


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