NOT EVERYONE KNOWS THIS…
By John Chaput John Chaput, born and raised in Montreal, eventually morphed into a Westerner. A retired writer and editor, he occupies much of his time as president of Regina Little Theatre.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATE JOHANSEN
MARCH 18, 1662
MARCH 13, 1781
The world’s first bus service begins in Paris. In a
William Herschel, an accomplished German-English
project conducted – so to speak – by mathematician,
musician and astronomer, is continuing his years-long
philosopher, inventor and all-around smarty-pants
search and study of double stars (stars that appear
Blaise Pascal, a network of regularly-scheduled
to be close together as viewed from Earth) when
carriages carrying up to eight passengers follow
he spots a disk-like celestial object that he initially
routes through the city. Pascal had conceived the
believes to be a comet. Sharing his finding and data
idea, secured financing from friendly nobles and
with other astronomers, it is soon determined that
obtained permission from King Louis XIV to run
Herschel has actually become the first person to
the operation as a monopoly. Not everyone knows
discover a planet. (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
this, but although the service was enthusiastically
Saturn had always been visible to the naked eye.)
received at first, the usage of the carosses à cinq sous
Naming the solar system’s seventh planet does not
(five-cent carriages) would gradually diminish and
come so readily, however. Herschel wants to call it
be discontinued by 1675 for a simple reason: the
Georgium Sidis after English King George III, whose
upper classes could ride them but not peasants and
sanity would soon enter an even more remote orbit.
soldiers. In other words, they were available only to
Colleagues suggest “Herschel,” but eventually it is
people who could afford their own horses or carriages
named after the mythological god Uranus, grandfather
anyway, and not to those who were most likely to use
of Jupiter and father of Saturn. Not everyone knows
them. The concept of urban public transportation
this, but making jokes about the name (there’s a ring
wouldn’t be revived until the 19th century in France,
around Uranus, there’s a dark spot on Uranus, Uranus
England and the United States.
is a gas giant) is obvious, not clever. Cut it out.
SIDEONE MARCH 2021
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