Wow. I didn't know Newton was so Black Metal.
Given the popularity of public executions in that time and place, I suspect a lot of people shared Newton's tastes.
--- andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
> As Master of the Mint. Well, he had it done and
> liked
> to watch. Being a gentleman, he didn't do it
> himself.
> Dirty hands and all that. For more detail, read
> Frank
> Manuel's great psychobiography of Newton, A Portrait
> of Isaac Newton. (I used to do History and
> Philosophy
> of Science in a former incarnation, and walked in
> Trinity chapel where stands Newton with his prism
> and
> his silent face. I was at Kings', though -- Keynes'
> College. Our chapel is better.)
>
> http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/newton.htm
>
> Sir Isaac Newton, 1624-1727.
>
>
> Cambridge genius, mathematician and physicist. In
> his
> Principia Mathematica (1687), Newton introduced his
> three laws of motion and the concepts of mass, force
> and the Principle of Universal Gravitation. In his
> Opticks (1704) he showed that white light was
> heterogeneously composed of more basic, primary
> rays,
> each with its own specific colour and index of
> refraction. Independently of Gottfried Leibniz,
> Newton was also the inventor of the calculus.
>
> In 1696, Newton gained an appointment as Warden of
> the
> Royal Mint and, in 1700, was made Master. The
> semi-senile Newton was responsible for the
> determination of the relationship between the values
> of gold and silver in the minting of coins. His
> undervaluation of silver led to the effective
> formation of the gold standard. His understanding
> of
> inflation was rather simple-minded -- blaming it on
> clipping and forgery. Newton spent much of his
> spare
> time coming up with novel ways of combating
> inflation,
> i.e. coming up with new gruesome ways to torture and
> execute counterfeiters and clippers.
>
> http://www.simonsingh.com/Isaac_Newton.html
>
> Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
> Michael White
>
>
> Isaac Newton’s PRINCIPIA is arguably the most
> significant publication in the history of science,
> and
> without doubt its author was the greatest scientist
> this nation has ever produced. Michael White’s
> biography does describe the great man’s scientific
> achievements, but the real focus of this book is the
> background to Newton’s tormented personal life,
> which
> created such an isolated, obsessive, cruel genius.
>
> Newton’s early childhood was marked by rejection and
> hatred. His mother, Hannah, was widowed before Isaac
> was born, and when she remarried her new husband
> refused to accept her three-year-old son into his
> home. Eight years later, when she was widowed again,
> Hannah was reunited with Isaac, but the pain of
> being
> abandoned was never forgotten. As an undergraduate
> at
> Cambridge, Newton confessed his childhood sins in a
> notebook, which included, “Threatening my father and
> mother Smith to burne them and the house over them.”
>
> An embittered man, Newton lived a life full of
> vengeful disputes, including long-running battles
> with
> John Flamsteed over access to astronomical data,
> with
> Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz over who invented
> calculus, and with Robert Hooke over virtually
> everything imaginable. White does not skimp when
> describing these hostile conflicts, and provides
> valuable insights into the machinations which
> surrounded the publication of PRINCIPIA.
>
> As the sub-title suggests, throughout the book there
> are descriptions of Newton’s secret life-long
> fascination with alchemy. Newton wrote over a
> million
> words on the subject, but this did not make him
> unusual within the community of scientists - many
> other members of the Royal Society privately shared
> Newton’s obsession. Alchemists tended to work in
> secret to avoid the wrath of the church and
> prosecution under an anti-alchemy law passed by
> Henry
> IV. Subsequent monarchs were slightly more tolerant,
> hoping that discovery of the philosopher’s stone
> might
> help the Crown pay off its debts, but the law
> remained
> in force and alchemists continued to conduct their
> research behind closed doors.
>
> White gives an enlightening account of Newton’s
> exploits in alchemy and his scientific research, but
> he also attempts to go one step further by arguing
> that the former influenced and inspired the latter.
> His controversial argument is not wholly convincing,
> and merely distracts from an otherwise fascinating
> biography. Even beyond the world science Newton led
> an
> eventful life, which included a period as Master of
> the Royal Mint. Until Newton reformed the nation’s
> currency, Britain was on the point of economic
> collapse. Most importantly he introduced milled
> coins,
> which prevented the practice of clipping - the
> removal
> a coin’s edge and turning clippings into new coins.
> He
> went on to frequent brothels and bars in an effort
> to
> hunt down counterfeiters, who he would have hung
> drawn
> and quartered. Here was a scientist who could
> explain
> gravity, create calculus, humiliate his rivals,
> dabble
> in alchemy and still have time to torture
> counterfeiters - those were the days!
>
>
>
> --- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > He did?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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