Mutiny Aboard the San Antonio

On 14 February 1842, some time before midnight, Lt. Charles Fuller, officer on deck of the Texas Navy schooner San Antonio, met a mob of sailors with marines in the front, all wanting to go ashore. Fuller ordered the marines to arms to take control of the mob. Instead, Marine Sgt. Oswald Seymour attacked Dearborn with a tomahawk. Marine Pvt. Benjamin Pompilly shot Lt. Fuller. Rushing to their aid, Midshipman William Henry Allen was shot in the foot. Midshipman T. H. Odell was shot in the thigh. Marine Pvt. Antonio Landois bayoneted Fuller. At that point Boatswain Frederick Shepherd intervened, shoving Landois. The wounded officers were dragged below deck. As Lt. Fuller lay dying on deck, the passing mutineers clubbed and stabbed him. The mutineers then took two boats and made for shore. New Orleans city police and United States Marines quickly rounded up the runaways.

 

At 12:20 PM on 26 April 1843, aboard the Texian Navy flagship Austin, four men were hanged for their mutiny on the night of 14 February 1842, while their ship, the TN San Antonio was in port anchored off Slaughterhouse Point, New Orleans. Much about the events was then and remains now questionable. Commodore Edwin Moore published his own history of the Texian navy, in part to answer accusations that he acted without authority when he ordered the court martial and then the executions aboard his ship. Histories of the mutiny aboard the San Antonio written either then or now do not refer to a similar incident aboard the US Navy Brig-of-War Somers, when the captain of the ship, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie ordered the execution by hanging of an officer and two sailors on the charge of mutiny on 1 December 1842.

 

Although four men—Antonio Landois, William Simpson, Isaac Allen, and James Hudgans*—were hanged aboard the TN Austin, they were not the only mutineers. Marine Sergeant Seymour Oswald had escaped from prison in New Orleans and was never recaptured. Marine Corporal Benjamin Pompilly died in prison, supposedly giving a death-bed confession and an account of the attack on the officers. Seaman Thomas Rowan, whom Lt. Seeger had delivered to Commodore Moore aboard the Austin on 10 March 1842, a month after the mutiny in what must have been a Captain’s Mast hearing and not a court-martial for mutiny, was given 100 lashes. Boatswain Frederick Shepherd was found not guilty. Seaman John Williams was given 50 lashes as was the cook Edward Keenan. Seaman William Barrington may have received 100 lashes or probably only 50 based other published recollections.

*Variously spelled Huggins and Hudgins. Many of them were illiterate and signed their names with a mark or X.

 

April 26th 1843

P.M.

Still Beating for Telchae. At 11.30 Laid the Fore Top Sail to the mast & Hoisted the Colours. At 11.45 Called all hands to execute sentence of Court Martial when they were addressed by Comdre Moore on the Subject of Mutiny. At 12 the prisoners were carried Forward & placed upon the Scaffold[.] After addressing the Crew the Ropes were placed around their necks. Until this time they appeared to believe they would be pardoned & did not evince much fear but now the truth flashed upon them & they knew they had to pay the Penalty of their crimes & commenced praying eagerly & piteously for Pardon[.] At 12.20 the Signal Gun was Fired & the four Prisoners run up to the Fore Yard.

Lat at Meridian 23º31’03” N

The Journal of Alfred Walke, April 16-27, 1843.

https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/navy/al_walke_apr16-27_1843_3.html 

I first learned about the Texian navy when I saw pay warrants for sale in a dealer’s showcase at a coin show in Austin in the late winter of 2018. I had seen the more common and well-documented so-called “Red Back” notes of the Republic of Texas. The navy scrip was different from them and I bought the one on display and asked the dealer to have it certified. As that was in process, he found another and I bought that as well. At that time I was serving in the Maritime Regiment of the Texas State Guard where I was assigned as a technical specialist in future operations to the Texas National Guard. I donated both of them to the Brigadier General John C. L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry. 

I believe that the pay warrants provide evidence about the mutiny that has not been published elsewhere. I found corroborating evidence in the archives of the Texian navy at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin. 

 

Historians Jim Day Hill, Tom Henderson Wells, and Jonathan W. Jordan all make Marine Sergeant Seymour Oswald the ringleader. Indeed, surviving records agree that he was at the front of the gang when they cut down the officer of the watch. However, also among the mutineers was William Simpson who was one of the four hanged for their crimes. It is interesting that Simpson’s endorsement appears on the warrants originally issued to three other men (not mutineers). Simpson then signed over all four notes to Galveston store owner, Christopher Fox. 

Roster of Texian Navy Marines

As a boatswain’s mate, Simpson was a frontline supervisor and trainer. Social psychology and group dynamics suggest that Simpson may have been the instigator and ringleader. Even though the historians agree that Simpson was a Marine corporal at the time of his execution, his endorsements on the warrants all say “Boatswain’s Mate” and he does not appear in the muster book of Marines. Two fires that destroyed Republic archives leave many unanswered questions.

 

Pay Warrant issued to
William Simpson, Boatswain's Mate

One question that every author asks, some with more imagination than others, is why was discipline lost? Most authors assume that the men were drunk. Where did the men get the whiskey? Some authors follow each other in claiming that rogue merchants in small boats traded among the sailing ships. In point of fact, the Texian Navy floated on a sea of whiskey. I found seven receipts between 14 May 1841 and 6 December 1841, totaling 2527 gallons of whiskey. 

 

And then there was this for 10 February 1842 at New Orleans for another short barrel of 37-1/2 gallons "for immediate use." The full truth is that unlike this receipt, the whiskey usually was among other purchases for beans, rice, bread, butter, lard, beef, pork, molasses, vinegar, and fresh food as well. Even so, hardly any stores were brought aboard without whiskey.

 

It is axiomatic that historians rely on primary documents. Those sources are not always accurate. At the University of Texas Briscoe Center I found the Adams-Gilmore Family Papers. Many of the sheets were typewriter written, apparently from older handwritten diaries. One entry detailed a patriotic celebration at the first anniversary of Texas Independence. It said that Sam Houston nailed a $20 gold coin to a flag pole for any man who could climb to the top and place the Texas flag. No such coin existed at that time. The first US $20 Double Eagle was struck in quantity in 1850. 

 

Sources

[1.] “Pay Warrants of the Texas Navy,” Michael E. Marotta, The Numismatist, November 2020. 

[2.] “Pay Warrants of the Texian Navy,” Michael E. Marotta, ANA eLearning Academy, 4 August 2020. 

[3.] “Pay Warrants of the Texian Navy,” Michael E. Marotta, TNA News, September 2019.

[4.] Mabry Museum Receives Texian Navy Scrip, Texas Navy Association, Invincible Newsletter, July 2019.

[5.] “Texas” Whitman Encyclopedia of Obsolete Paper Money, Volume 7. [Michael E. Marotta, editor].

 

• Bevill, James P. The Paper Republic: The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas. Houston: Bright Sky Press, 2009.
• Eller, E. M. The Texas Navy. U.S. Navy Department. Naval History Division. January 1, 1968. (TMF Museum online archives at http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/articles/texasnavy/texasnavy.htm and online at University of North Texas archives https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2419/)
• Fischer, Ernest G. Robert Potter: Founder of the Texas Navy. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1976.
• Gouge, William M. The Fiscal History of Texas Embracing an Account of its Revenues, Debts, and Currency from the Commencement of the Revolution in 1814 to 1851-52 with Remarks on American Debt. Philadelphia,1852; reprinted  New York, Burt Franklin, 1969.
• Hill. Jim Dan. The Texas Navy in Forgotten Battles and Shirtsleeve Diplomacy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937.
• Jones, Anson. Memoranda and Official Correspondence Relating to the Republic of Texas Its History and Annexation 1836 to 1846. Chicago: The Rio Grande Press, Inc., 1966.
• Jordan, Jonathan W. Lone Star Navy: Texas, the Fight for the Gulf of Mexico, and the Shaping of the American West. Washington, D. C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2006.
• Medlar, Bob. Texas Obsolete Notes and Scrip. Society of Paper Money Collectors. San Antonio: R. A. Glasscock, 1969/
• Olson, Joseph D. Texas Currency: A Catalog 1813-1868. San Antonio: Corporate Image; Waco: James D. Olson, 2006.
• Siegel, Stanley. A Political History of the Texas Republic 1836-1845. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1956.
• Wells, Tom Henderson. Commodore Moore and the Texas Navy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960.

 

Websites

• Handbook of Texas Online, Joseph Milton Nance, “REPUBLIC OF TEXAS,” accessed December 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mzr02.
• Handbook of Texas Online, James M. Daniel, “TEXAS NAVY,” accessed December 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qjt02.
• Handbook of Texas Online, Marie Giles, “MOORE, EDWIN WARD,” accessed December 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmo24.
• The Texas navy: Fortune Favors the Brave. “THE YUCATAN ALLIANCE,” accessed January 18, 2019, https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/navy/alliance.html
• Texas Navy Association https://texasnavy.org/Resources/Documents/Historical/General/Texas_Navy_Bibliography.pdf
• Wikipedia, The First Texas Navy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Texas_Navy

Museums and Libraries

• Brigadier General John C. L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum, Camp Mabry, 3038 West 35th Street, Austin, Texas 78703, P.O Box 5218, Austin, Texas 78763. 
• Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, 2300 Red River St, Austin, Texas 78712
• Texas State Library and Archives Commission, 1201 Brazos Street, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, Texas 78711

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

 

The Texas Navy 

The Somers Mutiny 

A Few Good Men: a Few Deep Flaws 

JAG: Ten Seasons of Military Bearing 

Texans Serving Texas 

 

Publications in Historical Astronomy

I joined the American Astronomical Society in order to apply for an opportunity to volunteer as an assistant editor for the Historical Astronomy Division’s web page, “This Month in Astronomical History.”  

https://aas.org/posts/news/2020/07/month-astronomical-history-june-2020

My responsibilities are mostly to proofread short (750 to 1500-word) submissions from professionals. The topics generally celebrate some notable date, typically birth and death dates of astronomers, as well as other memorable events. The contributing authors are usually college professors. Some are graduate and post-graduate students in university astronomy programs. A few are amateur affiliates, which is my own status within the AAS. 

https://aas.org/posts/news/2020/10/month-astronomical-history-october-2020

My editors have assigned topics to me. Also, my duties include finding authors, and when I cannot do that, I write the missing calendar entry. In every case, the work is passed upward to other editors, including an AAS publications committee. I always learn a lot, whether from reviewing the works of others or from the improvements made to my work.

https://aas.org/posts/news/2021/04/month-astronomical-history-march-2021

https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/02/month-astronomical-history-march-2022

https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/06/month-astronomical-history-june-2022

https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/08/month-astronomical-history-august-2022

https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/10/month-astronomical-history-september-2022

 

Most people do not know that researchers pay to have their works published. Our common understanding is that your good research findings are submitted to a professional publication which then submits them to other researchers for peer review. That is true. However, just being accepted as worthy is not enough. Therefore, university department budgets include money for subsidized publications, just as they pay for travel to conferences or research sites. That does not apply to the Historical Astronomy Division: we do not charge for publication; however, our platform is entirely electronic, not print; so our costs are minimal. 

https://aas.org/posts/news/2022/12/month-astronomical-history-december-2022

https://aas.org/posts/news/2023/01/month-astronomical-history-january-2023

Also not widely known, even among the literati, is that for the American Astronomical Society if you have a doctorate in astronomy or astrophysics and all you do is teach at university, you cannot (usually) be a full voting member: you are (only) an Educator Affiliate, more akin to an Amateur Affiliate or Alumni Affiliate. Full voting members are primary investigators, the ones who submit grant proposals and hire post-doctorate researchers, doctoral candidates, and other students.

 

PREVIOUSLY IN NECESSARY FACTS

 

Of Watches and Beaches and Atheists 

Cosmos: A Spacetime Travesty 

Sociology is a Science 

Is Physics a Science? 

Familiar Sites, Familiar Sights

Three constellations on the ecliptic actually look almost like what they are supposed to be: Leo, Scorpius, and Taurus. Those probably go back to 5000 BCE if not earlier. By 1200 BCE, other constellations had been mapped by civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China.  

22 January 2023 05:30 AM CST

The Romans were obsessive about order. Conforming with 12 inches to the foot, and 12 ounces to the pound, and 12 gods of Olympus, they created 12 zodiac constellations. The Claws of Scorpius became Libra.

Corvus 4 May 2021 23:00 to 23:20 Hours

Corvus 6 May 2022 22:12 Hours CDT

Scorpius 14 July 2015 22:43 to 22:48 CDT

Zuben Elgenubi 01 Feb 2021 05:35 to 06:00 CST

Xi Scorpii 19 June 2022 23:30 CDT

Xi Scorpii 19 June 2022 23:30 CDT

In The Odyssey, the hero is told to steer his raft by the Bear who looks at Orion. The Bear, Calypso says, is also known to others as the Wagon.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

 

The Andromeda Galaxy 

Binary Star Project 

Two Deep-Sky Targets 

Neutron-Irradiated Dimes 

The Morning Sky

Stepping outside with the cat after her breakfast, I stopped to take in the sky. I felt comfort from the familiar sight and regret for not being involved with it. Astronomy is more affective than microscopy. 

In neither am I truly discovering anything. In both, I only see what others have said is there:  stars in a cluster; cells in a tissue. If not for the books (and websites) I would have little, if any, understanding of what I am looking at, though biology does allow more opportunity for informed inference. The walls of cells are visibly tractable while (with my instruments) the strata of stars are not.

On the left (south) Scorpius with Claws Zuben el Eshmali
and Zuben el Genubi. To the right (west) Corvus.
Xi Scorpii here and Corvus here.

The telescopes remain all packed away. Yesterday, I put the microscopes and slides back into storage. 

 

I expected to view the present conjunction of Saturn and Venus, and I watched the approach as of last week, but I put it off. I went out last night and saw only Venus. Checking the charts, I understood that a telescope would have provided the view I sought. 

 

PREVIOULSY ON NECESSARY FACTS

ELI the ICEman: Science and Technology 

Epigenetics 

Fantastic Voyages: Teaching Science with Science Fiction

The Madam Curie Complex 

Microscopy (again)

Ahead of a medical procedure, I was cautioned that I will not be doing any bending and lifting for a couple of months or more. So, I packed away all of my telescopes and sealed the boxes until spring. Mars will be just past the meridian at 9:00 PM Central Time on March 15. In the meantime, I set up the dining table again for microscopy.

In numismatics we say, "If you don't know your coins, know your dealer." That applies in many areas. Reading in discussion groups online for amateur microscopy, several people raved  about the great deals they found on Goodwill dot com and I did buy two microscopes there. Nice enough as they were for the price, they were not great deals and from that point forward, I gathered bookmarks to websites for microscope retailers and name brands for scientific supplies. 

The Cloudy Nights discussion board for amateur astronomers has a forum for this, "Cloudy Days: Microscopes" here https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/104-cloudy-days-microscopes/  I also visit the Microbe Hunter discussion board here https://www.microbehunter.com/microscopy-forum/. That board is the work of Oliver Kim whose main board is Microbe Hunter: https://www.microbehunter.com He has been doing this for several years, has very many very helpful videos on YouTube, and sells by pass-through clicks on Amazon. Also on YouTube, I found Journey to the Microcosmos, which provides a lot of entertaining videos about very small things seen very large. 

Other hobbyists  online have recommended other resources such as Quekett, a UK group with international membership. Interesting as they all are, I have not joined anything new yet. (I just filed an article about the Huygens probe to Titan with the History of Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society. And I still have a day job.) 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

 

A New Microscope

Microscopy 

Biohackers 

Biobash: Chamber Replicates Success 

Disruptive Diagnostics and the Business of Science

The Courage of Your Convictions

It is really easier to say nothing. You are under no obligation to say anything. If you must voice an opinion against some nonsense, it is enough to say that you disagree and leave it at that. Moreover, a postmodernist or someone similar will tell you that right and wrong are only cultural constructs. Of course that assertion itself is a cultural construct. And even a scientist will remind you that our ideas about truth have changed as new facts have been discovered and new theories developed to explain them. It was not always so. There was a time when a scientist would truly go to the ends of the Earth to prove a theory. 

Today, scientists are not alone in accepting a false theory of induction which asserts that we can only approach but never know the truth. 

From Susan M. Lea and John Robert Burke, Physics: the Nature of Things (Thomson Brooks/Cole; 1997). 

“Physics is an experimental science that prides itself in getting close to reality through laboratory testing of theory. … How can we be certain that the experimental process of dissecting nature into component part is ultimately correct? We can’t! Belief in experimental science depends on one’s worldview.” -- page 12.

 

“Consistency with experiment and usefulness in understanding nature are the properties of a good physical theory. The word truth is conspicuously absent. Aristotle… Kepler and Galileo… Newtonian physics, [were] thought absolutely true for 250 years. In the twentieth century, we have learned that Newtonian physics is not exact but stands as an excellent approximation. Absolute truth is elusive. We continue to seek greater depth in our understanding, greater elegance in our theories, and greater precision in our experiments. Whether truth can be achieved in some approximate sense by this process is unanswerable. We believe in physics because we know we can organize our knowledge and employ it to describe the behavior of nature with greater accuracy using only a small number of fundamental ideas.” -- page 14

Not all scientists are timid.

“As a scientist, Sagan speculated freely, sometimes wildly, and outraged his more cautious colleagues. ... He anticipated some interesting scientific discoveries, although sometimes (and oddly) for the wrong reasons. ... The price of fame is a big head, and Sagan’s grew mighty big; eyewitness testimony to this effect abounds.... Most scientists, by contrast, are rarely so self-assured. To them, Truth is a like a blob of mercury—it’s hard to pin down. Sagan’s air of omniscience made him seem sometimes slightly inhuman, more like Mr. Spock than Mr. Wizard.” ) Carl Sagan: A Life by Keay Davison, John Wiley & Sons, 1999, pages xiii- xiv passim.

 

When the American Astronomical Society sought to present Margaret Burbidge with the Annie Jump Cannon Award in May 1971, she rejected their offer.  

[quote] In a letter to AAS secretary Laurence Frederick, Burbidge wrote, “I believe that it is high time that discrimination in favor of, as well as against women in professional life be removed, and a prize restricted to women is in this category.” Underlying that official statement was the suspicion that the Cannon Award had kept women from receiving other recognition. In conclusion, Burbidge wrote, “It would be interesting to know, however, how often our names have been excluded from consideration for professorships, directorships . . . because we are women.” 

At that time, AAS offered two other awards—the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, which honored an astronomer’s long and distinguished career, and the Helen B. Warner Prize, for astronomers no more than 35 years old. No woman had received the Russell. Burbidge was the only woman to have won the Warner Prize, in 1959, and she had shared it with her husband Geoffrey for their work on stellar nucleosynthesis.

From Physics Today 27 Feb 2018 in People & History: The award rejection that shook astronomy by Roberta Humphreys at https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.4.20180227a/full/

Interviewed by Joe Rogan (YouTube here) Neil deGrasse Tyson said that while the dictionary definition of “atheist” applies to him, the functional definition does not. Functionally, he said, an atheist is someone who feels compelled to argue with religious people. He also said that he often uses the word “God” in the vernacular sense, as when he wished an astronaut friend, Godspeed, echoing “Godspeed, John Glenn.” 

 

On the other hand, Richard Dawkins advocates for militant atheism. Granting that religious people can be good, he refuses to relinquish the epistemological high ground. Not only does God not exist, as good as many people seem to be, only religion specifically allows and encourages them to be bad. Arguing against that proposition some people point to the atheists of communist governments—the USSR, Cambodia, and China--who carried out atrocities against people holding religious beliefs. However, despite claims to “scientific socialism” political Marxism-Leninism is really another religion: it has books of sole truth, a priesthood, and intense internal battles over dogma, none of which can be empirically verified. Whatever failings that scientists have as individuals—to err is human—they do not bomb each other’s classrooms and cafes. 

It is not a lack of standards or a want of values. Right and wrong exist and we can know them. Only physical force is forbidden. As the US Supreme Court ruled on the legality of polygamy in Utah (Reynolds vs. the United States 18 US 145; 1879):You are free to believe whatever you want; you are not free to do whatever you want. Personally, I believe that SCOTUS was in error on the wider issue. As long as no one was coerced, they were all free to do whatever they wanted. The fundamental truth remains, however: The strength and resiliency of an open society is a consequence of the interactions—even acrimonious debate—among people advancing their own ideas.

 

It is infamously known in astronomy that Cecilia Payne changed her doctoral dissertation to agree with the (widely accepted) theory of her advisor Harlow Shapley and astronomers generally that the elements are distributed in the stars very much as they are on and within the Earth. Payne found that hydrogen is a million times more abundant in the stars. Similarly, 80 years later, confronted with doubts from the highest authorities, Bruce Campbell and Gordon Walker retracted their claim to have found the first evidence of an exoplanet. Nonetheless, it remains foundational to the scientific method that you have to know when you were wrong. How you know is as much a matter of introspection as it is of epistemology. 

 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

 

Karl Popper and His Enemies 

Karl Marx and the Dustbin of History 

The Scientific Method 

The Scientific Method (Revisited)

 

Merry Newtonmas 2022

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. (18;2), London: 1963, pages 136-145. 

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 

Merry Newtonmas 2021 

Of Watches and Beaches and Atheists