Newton's 'one Incredibly Productive Year'

Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. His father died shortly before he was born. Newton attended Trinity College, starting in 1661, and remained there for the early part of his career. During the year of the plague (1665 to 1666), Trinity College was closed and Newton returned to his family home in the country. It was during this one incredibly productive year that much of Newton’s most important work began. In 1703 Newton was knighted and elected president of the Royal Society, a post he held until his death in 1727.

Newton’s best-known contributions to science were his three laws of motion and law of universal gravitation. These were first published in his Principia of 1687. Newton’s other seminal work was Opticks, initially published in 1704. Newton also developed differential and integral calculus (although with different terminology and notation than used today), fluid mechanics, equations describing heat transfer, and an experimental scientific method. His other major intellectual interests were alchemy, theology, history, and biblical chronology. While working at the Royal Mint, Newton successfully oversaw the recoinage of the nation’s currency to control coin clipping (the illicit trimming of gold or silver from the edges of coins) and its related inflation.

It is historically known that Newton owned one of Europe’s largest book collections on alchemy. Unfortunately, this part of his library was dispersed at the time of his death without an adequate inventory. Although Newton did not publish any large work on alchemy, the subject did continue to preoccupy him during the course of his life. Alchemy had obvious relevance to his work at the mint and its associated work on metallurgy. It also interested him because of its relevance to questions about the ultimate structure of matter. Much of Newton’s published work on chemistry or alchemy appears in the form of «Queries» placed at the end of Opticks. These are rhetorical questions with postulated answers, some of which are quite extensive. Together, the Queries cover some sixty-seven pages. Query 31 alone is thirty text pages long.

Newton’s postulated answers concern the ultimate structure of matter by advancing the idea of atoms with some level of internal structure, a notion anticipating the modern concept of molecules. Newton also postulated on the existence of a nonmaterial substance, an imponderable (unweighable) fluid called ether, which might work at very small distances to repel atoms from one another. Heat, light, electricity, or the reactions of chemistry might be used; Newton suggested probing this subtle, imponderable fluid.

It seems desirable to give a passing reference of the dreadful year, known as ‘Black Death. In the year 1665 death in the form of plague went on calling in every nook and corner of the city of London.  People called it the Black Death, black for the colour of the tell-tale lumps that foretold its presence in a victim’s body, and death for the inevitable result. The plague germs were carried by fleas which lived as parasites on rats. Although it had first appeared in Britain in 1348, the islands were never totally free of plague, but it was like an unpleasant possibility that people just learned to live with while they got on with their business. This time it was different.

In 1663 plague ravaged Holland. Charles II forbade any trade with the Dutch, partly out of wise concern, and partly because his realm was engaged in a fierce trade war with Holland which eventually erupted into armed conflict. Despite the precautions, the early spring of 1665 brought a sudden rise in the death rate in the poorer sections of London. The authorities ignored it. As spring turned into one of the hottest summers in memory, the number of deaths escalated and panic set in.

The nobility left the city for their estates in the country. They were followed by the merchants, and the lawyers. The Inns of Court were deserted. Most of the clergy suddenly decided they could best minister to their flocks from far, far away. The College of Surgeons fled to the country, which did not stop several of its members from writing learned papers about the disease they had been at such pains to avoid. The court moved to Hampton Court Palace. By June the roads were clogged with people desperate to escape London. The Lord Mayor responded by closing the gates to anyone who did not have a certificate of health. These certificates became a currency more valuable than gold, and a thriving market in forged certificates grew up.

By mid July over 1,000 deaths per week were reported in the city. It was rumored that dogs and cats spread the disease, so the Lord Mayor ordered all the dogs and cats destroyed. The real effect of this was that there were fewer natural enemies of the rats who carried the plague fleas, so the germs spread more rapidly. Anyone in constant contact with plague victims, such as doctors, nurses, inspectors, were compelled to carry coloured staffs outdoors so that they could be easily seen and avoided. When one person in a house caught the plague the house was sealed until 40 days after the victim either recovered or died (usually the latter). Guards were posted at the door to see that no one got out. The guard had to be bribed to allow any food to pass to the inmates. It was not unknown for families to break through the walls of the house to escape, and in several cases they carefully lowered a noose over the guard’s head from an attic window and hung him so they could get away.

 Londoners were shunned when they managed to escape the city. Even letters from the capital were treated as if they were poisonous. Letters were variously scraped, heated, soaked, aired, and pressed flat to eliminate «pestilential matter». Throughout the summer the death rate escalated, reaching a high of over 6,000 per week in August. From there the disease slowly, so painfully slowly, receded until winter, though it was not until February of 1666 that King Charles thought it safe to return to the city. How many died? It is hard to say, for the official records of that time were patchy at best. The best guess is that over 100,000 people perished in and around London, though the figure may have been much higher.

The plague broke out in the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, brought on a shipment of old clothes sent from London. The villagers, led by their courageous clergyman, realized that the only way to stop the spread of the plague to surrounding villages was to voluntarily quarantine the village, refusing to leave until the plague had run its course that they did, though at the cost of 259 people out of a total of 292 inhabitants. Interestingly, every year this heroic event is commemorated by the ‘Plague Sunday Service’ in Eyam.