The first recorded Newtonmas is credited to the Newton Kai at Tokyo University, circa 1891. Physics students had been celebrating with a party of their own in their undergraduate years. As they became graduate students, they brought some of their professors into the circle. The report is in Nature, Volume 46 Number 1193 Page 459, published 8 September 1892. So that party had been convened the Christmas before.
I do not remember my flash of inspiration back in 1982. However, I was enrolled in physics at Lansing Community College and was the physics lab aide. Our professor for that class was Dr. Alan Saaf who more than once called a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder a “Newtonburger.”[1] So, Newtonmas could have been a logical leap. I sent out Newtonmas cards several times in the 1980s and recorded a Newtonmas greeting as a “Community Commentary” for WKAR-FM, the public broadcaster of Michigan State University in 1983 or 84.
For that, I built up the imagery of a little boy born in a small village across the sea who would grow up to bring light to the world. When I quoted the poet's eulogy – Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.—I emphasized the word Pope and then announced that Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642, the same year that Galileo died.
Michael Shermer and the Skeptic Society have been celebrating Newtonmas for at least 25 years by now. Richard Dawkins touted it in 2007. And it was an element in an opening scene of Big Bang Theory Season 3 Episode 11, “Maternal Congruence.”
Why do we not have Galileomas or Keplermas? Sir Isaac Newton stands as perhaps the most accomplished scientist in the modern world. At his level would be only Aristotle or only Archimedes. As much as we owe to everyone who invented something new, not every savant earns the same honors as Newton.
He invented the calculus to prove his physics. He did that with geometry. When Richard P. Feynman attempted to recreate that work from scratch, he found that he could not. We rely on algebra and calculus and have forgotten much. Newton’s physics demonstrated that the laws on Earth are the same as they are in Heaven. Heaven is not perfect; Earth is not flawed. Force equals mass multiplied by the second change in distances over times and the path of an object acting under central force motion always fits to a curve sliced from a cone.
That would be enough. But Newton did more.
He served two terms in Parliament, representing Cambridge University (1689-1702). He was president of the Royal Society (1703-1727). He found another proof for the Binomial Theorem (also known as Pascal’s Triangle). He found a clever shortcut for rapidly approximating square roots.
His work in optics was fundamental to understanding light and, in truth, the entire electromagnetic spectrum. That work also led to the development of spectroscopy. Newton’s work in optics led to his invention of the reflecting telescope, which (unlike a refractor) introduces no chromatic aberration.
While he was Warden and Master of the British Royal Mint for 30 years, he had himself sworn as a justice of the peace. He went disguised into the pubs where criminals exchanged wares and gossip. With the information he gathered, he arrested, interrogated, and prosecuted counterfeiters. The execution of the notorious William Chaloner hallmarked Newton’s labors to protect England’s money. Chaloner was a master criminal who even testified before Parliament in his efforts to rob from the Royal Mint with impunity. Clever as he apparently was, Chaloner was no match for Newton.
In fact, no one was.
Newton’s Principial Mathematica was more than the birth of modern astronomy or physics or science or mathematics. The Constitution of the United States with its balances of powers is a translation of the principles of physical science to the social world. You can get an ought from an is.
General Biographies of Sir Isaac Newton
Berlinski, David. Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World. New York: Free Press, Simon and Schuster, 2000.
Calligas, Elini (editor), Coincraft's 1998 Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins 1066 to Date.London: Coincraft, 1998.
Keynes, Milo. “The Personality of Isaac Newton,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society (49), London: The Royal Society, 1995.
Marotta, Michael. “Sir Isaac Newton: Warden and Master of the Mint,” The Numismatist, Vol. 114, no. 11 (November 2001), p. 1302-1308, 1363 : ill., port. (George Heath Literary Award, Second Place, 2002)
Newman, E. G. V. “The Gold Metallurgy of Isaac Newton.” The Gold Bulletin Vol 8. No. 3, London: The World Gold Council, 1975.
Trowbridge, Richard J. Queen Anne, 1702-1714 Mystery Farthings. Long Beach: Coins of the British World, 1970.
Westfall, Richard S. Never at Rest: a Biography of Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
White, Michael. Isaac Newton: The Last Sorceror. Reading, Mass.: Helix Books, Perseus Books, 1997.
www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/, The Newton Project, Professor Rob Iliffe Director, University of Sussex, East Sussex - BN1 9SH
Newton at the Mint
(Sir John Craig was Deputy Master and Comptroller of the British Royal Mint.)
Craig, Sir John. Newton at the Mint. Cambridge: University Press, 1946.
Craig, Sit John. “Isaac Newton - Crime Investigator,” Nature 182, (19 July 1958), pages 149-152.
Craig, Sir John. “Isaac Newton and the Counterfeiters.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society (18;2), London: 1963, pages 136-145.
www.royalmint.com/museum/newton Web site pages of the British Royal Mint.
Shaw, W. A., F. B. A., Select Tracts and Documents illustrative of English Monetary History 1626-1730. London: Clement Wilson, 1896; reprinted, London: George Harding, 1935.
Newton versus the Counterfeiters
Levenson, Thomas. 2009. Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt.
Sources cited by Sir John Craig, Notes and Records of the Royal Society.
Chaloner, William: Proposals.. ... to prevent clipping and counterfeiting, II.2.I694/5: Against raising £1,000,000 for the great recoinage, c. 3.1695: The defects.. ... of the Mint, 1697: Appeal after arrestc . I8.2.I698. (Four pamphlets.)
Middlesex Sessions Roll for 1699, containing original indictments at the Old Bailey, in the County of Middlesex Record Office, London. now in the London Metropolitan Archives.
Newton MSS. in the library of the Royal Mint; 5 large volumes of those papers from Newton's residence which were sorted by Conduitt as 'Mint'.
Depositions about and letters from criminals, 1697-1704; one volume in the Royal Mint Library.
Anon. GuzmanR edivivus, a short view of the life of William Chaloner, the notorious Coyner, who was executed at Tyburn on Wednesday the 22nd of March 1698/9; with a brief acount of his trial, behaviour and last speech. London: J. Hayns, 1699.
Reasons Humbly Offered Against Pass an Act for Raising Ten Hundred Thousand Pounds by William Chaloner, 1694.
Proposals Humbly Offered, for Passing an Act to Prevent Clipping and Counterfeiting of Money, by William Chaloner, London, 1694.
[1] Just to note, 1 N = 0.2248 lbf and 0.25 lbf = 1.112 N. Dr. Saaf came to physics at LCC via astronomy at the University of Chicago. So, he probably would have accepted an order of magnitude approximation if the theory were useful.
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Newton versus the Counterfeiter
Of Watches and Beaches and Atheists
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