When Halley's comet was expected in 1835, a shoemaker of Leicester,
named Joseph Mills, set about tracing the path of the heavenly visitor
through the heavens. This he did by drawing its orbit upon his house
floor, from which he made a diagram that more accurately represented the
course of the comet than any that had been previously published. On
being questioned how he had calculated the disturbing forces, so as to
come so near the truth; he replied that he could not tell, further than
he had performed it by the common rules of arithmetic.
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