I’m indulging in a little time travel this evening, trying to see if I can find any further information that will answer once and for all what it is that links me to the year 1642. I’ve discovered some quite extraordinary facts about the year 1642. Well, maybe not that extraordinary when you think that it was the time of great new discoveries, but interesting, nevertheless.
The good thing about time travel is that things do not need to be in their set chronological order when written down. We can leap from one time to the next and still know where we are. In retrospect, we are not as confined to things moving only in one direction as we are in our present day.
So, to start with, New Zealand and Tasmania were discovered by Europeans in 1642. Abel Janszoon Tasman saw New Zealand on 13th December 1642 and Tasmania, a few weeks earlier, on 24th November 1642. See… time travel is good… we can write about things progressively backwards, forwards, or in any old order! I wonder if Abel saw the total Lunar Eclipse on December 21st a few years earlier? …Maybe it wasn’t visible in that part of the world, but he may have done. Obviously, both lands had been discovered much earlier by the people who were already there, but they are both a long way away from Europe.
A quick interlude here though… why have I found out about these discoveries today? I’ve been looking into facts about 1642 for several months now, and not once did either of these two facts leap out at me. But they have done so today. And still, more continue to do so…
On July 3rd 1642, Marie de Médicis, Queen Consort of France, died. Marie was married to Henry IV of France, and was mother to King Louis XIII. Her grandson, who became King Louis XIV, has rather a coincidental link to today…
Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, invented the mechanical calculator in 1642, whilst still a teenager. This calculator has been developed and refined over the years and eventually became the microprocessor. King Louis XIV granted Blaise a Royal Privilege in 1649, allowing him exclusive design and manufacture of the calculating machines in France. Thinking about it, this calculating machine would have been cutting edge technology back then, as the microprocessor is today.
I may be on to something here. I’m using a computer right at this moment. This is the first definite link that I physically have with 1642. I don’t understand what it means, but it is something. I know that more information will be revealed to me very soon.
I currently have no idea why I’m fascinated by 1642, but 1642 seems to have been a very interesting year indeed. It is such a pity that TV news wasn’t invented then and we could have videos of all that took place! Still, I like snippets, and I can’t grumble about them – no matter how slowly they are filtering through to me…
The Mansionic Perspective 
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