
The Genius Who First Predicted Black Holes - adamisntdead
https://medium.com/@sam.enright2001/the-forgotten-genius-who-first-predicted-black-holes-e2045b98dc51
======
eesmith
This appears to be strongly based on Alasdair Wilkins' 2010 piece on Gizmodo,
at [https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-forgotten-genius-who-
discovered-...](https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-forgotten-genius-who-discovered-
black-holes-over-20-5717082) .

Consider the quote from this essay by Enright:

> Born in 1724 in the small village of Eakring, Nottinghamshire, Michell
> studied at Cambridge University. A true polymath, he later went on to teach
> there, instructing students in everything from Hebrew to geology. In 1761,
> Michell was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, before settling down
> to the position of rector at St. Michael’s Church in Leeds in 1767.

with that in Wilkins' article:

> John Michell is one of the great unsung geniuses of 18th century science.
> Born in 1724, he studied at Cambridge University and later went on to teach
> there, instructing students in everything from Hebrew and Greek to math and
> geology. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1761, but in 1767 he left
> for northern England to take up the the post of rector of St. Michael's
> Church in the city of Leeds, where he spent the rest of his days.

Or, this essay by Enright says:

> He made significant contributions to our understanding of electromagnetism
> and is often regarded as the father of seismology, having discovered fault
> lines, rock strata, and the wave nature of earthquakes. Michell also devised
> a method involving torsion fibres to determine the mass of the Earth.

Wilkins' article:

> His speculations on earthquakes proved remarkably prescient, writing that
> earthquakes act like waves of energy beneath the Earth and that they are
> caused by discontinuities between different strata, essentially predicting
> the existence of fault lines. All this work earned him the later title of
> the father of seismology, and he developed a method to very accurately
> measure the mass of Earth.

(Note that
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michell)
says more directly Michell "introduced the idea that earthquakes spread out as
waves through the Earth and that they involve the offsets in geological strata
now known as faults.", making Wilkins' description more accurate.)

Enright:

> Combining these two insights, Michell devised an ingenious method by which
> the mass of stars could be determined by looking at how much the emitted
> light was slowed down by the pull of gravity.

Wilkins:

> Michell came up with an ingenious method to work out the masses of stars,
> figuring that careful calculation of the speed of light coming from a given
> star would reveal its gravitational influence and, in turn, its mass.

To be fair, Enright includes things which Wilkins does not cover (and vice
versa). However, Enright's overall organization is quite similar to that of
Wilkins' 2010 article - enough that I can't help but wonder about the
connection between the two.

