I have recently been listening to the Mark Steel lectures (a curious mix of historical lecture and comedy show). Steel has a real eye for the absurd sidelines of history, at the same time makes some really important and salient points. Also he's really fucking funny. In one particular lecture about Isaac Newton I learnt all sorts of interesting things, including a bunch of stuff that drove home that Newton was actually a real, three dimensional human being, not just a page in a book. Thought I'd share a few of them with the internet.
When Newton was little he got into a fist fight with another boy, recounted here by his cousin:
Of all the things you could ever see in history, what could possibly be better than getting to see Isaac Newton in a fight?
I can think of many things worse than seeing Newton in a fight. Including purchasing cures from the chemist that Newton used to work in. Here is Newton's recipe for a potion that should act as "A cure for wounds on the body":
Mmmmmm.... tasty. Later in life Newton was an MP, although whilst in parliament he only made one speech. It was:
My kind of politician.
I also really enjoyed to the stories about Newton being master of the royal mint. One of his jobs at the time was to track down counterfeit coins (at time time counterfeiting was punishable by death). He was hugely dilligent and used to dress up in disguise to follow people into pubs and listen for information. He would bodysearch and arrest everybody, even small children, knowing that they may be executed. Newton's record was to get ten counterfeiters hung in a single week. I think Mark Steel sums up the difference between Newton's jobs really well when he says:
The lecture is full of lots of interesting stuff, I'm going to hold off just regurgitating the whole thing here but will end on a couple of notes about about Newton's alchemy ("Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians") and interesting experiments by the Royal Society (turning cheese into insects and drinking cow's piss to induce vomiting)
I'm sure that if anybody is interested I could *ahem* find an mp3 for you.
When Newton was little he got into a fist fight with another boy, recounted here by his cousin:
[A bully] gave him [Newton] a kick in the belly, which put him in a great deal of pain. When school was over, Newton challenged him to a fight, and they went into the churchyard. While they were fighting, the Master's son came out and encouraged them by clapping one on the back and winking at the other. Isaac Newton had the more spirit and resolution and beat him [the bully] till he would fight no more. Young Stokes [the Master's son] told Newton to treat him like a coward and rub his nose against the wall, and accordingly Newton pulled him along by the ears and thrust his face against the side of the church.
Of all the things you could ever see in history, what could possibly be better than getting to see Isaac Newton in a fight?
I can think of many things worse than seeing Newton in a fight. Including purchasing cures from the chemist that Newton used to work in. Here is Newton's recipe for a potion that should act as "A cure for wounds on the body":
A small portion of mint and wormwood.
and three hundred millipedes. Well beaten.
with their heads pulled off in a mortar and suspended in four gallons of fermenting ale.
to be taken four times daily.
Mmmmmm.... tasty. Later in life Newton was an MP, although whilst in parliament he only made one speech. It was:
Could somebody close the window please? I have a draft on my back
My kind of politician.
I also really enjoyed to the stories about Newton being master of the royal mint. One of his jobs at the time was to track down counterfeit coins (at time time counterfeiting was punishable by death). He was hugely dilligent and used to dress up in disguise to follow people into pubs and listen for information. He would bodysearch and arrest everybody, even small children, knowing that they may be executed. Newton's record was to get ten counterfeiters hung in a single week. I think Mark Steel sums up the difference between Newton's jobs really well when he says:
It is hard to think of anyone who has ever been so brilliant in one of their jobs and then so appalling in the next. It'd be like if Nelson Mandela got a job in an aquarium and then got done for shoving fireworks up a dolphin's arse
The lecture is full of lots of interesting stuff, I'm going to hold off just regurgitating the whole thing here but will end on a couple of notes about about Newton's alchemy ("Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians") and interesting experiments by the Royal Society (turning cheese into insects and drinking cow's piss to induce vomiting)
I'm sure that if anybody is interested I could *ahem* find an mp3 for you.
