Category Great Personalities

Despite his success as a scientist, Newton was at first largely inactive in the political arena. Later, he became the Member of Parliament, representing Cambridge University from 1689 to 1690. This had been the period when the Parliament enacted the Bill of Rights, which limited the power of the monarchy and laid out the rights of Parliament and individuals. However, Newton was anything but an active parliamentarian. He reportedly spoke just once and that had been to ask an usher to close a window on a chilly day!

Despite his lacklustre contributions as a parliamentarian, he became acquainted with many influential individuals including King William III and philosopher John Locke, during his time in London. Newton served a second term in the parliament from 1701 to 1702 but this time too his participation in the proceedings of Parliament was minimal.

In 1705, he was knighted by Queen Anne for his contributions to science and public service. The event was held at a lavish ceremony at Trinity College. Newton became the first scientist to be given this honour.

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Among all the duties Newton had at the Royal Mint, the most impossible one was testing the purity and accuracy of coins. The coins had to be of the correct weight and fineness, with only the least difference from each other.

The task of determining whether each coin was identical to the other, turned out to be a tedious one. However, Newton’s scientific training came in useful to tackle this job.

Newton visited the pressing plant next to his office at the Royal Mint every day. Workmen would take out a small sample of the molten metal using ladles designed for this purpose. The sample would be taken back to the warden’s laboratory where he conducted chemical experiments on the metal to verify if it met the required standards of purity.

Newton claimed that he had brought the coinage to a much greater degree of exactness than ever before. Naturally, he reacted angrily when a judgment by the jury in the Trial of the Pyx in 1710 declared that the gold coins were substandard. (The Trial of the Pyx is a procedure in which the integrity of the coinage of England was tested.)

Isaac Newton was appointed as the warden of the Royal Mint in 1696. He received the position on the recommendation of Charles Montague, a well-known politician of the time. The prestigious post was intended as a reward for Newton’s scientific achievements.

Newton took up the position at a crucial time as England was in the process of changing its silver coinage prevalent from the time of Elizabeth I. As these coins had a smooth edge, people could easily clip small amounts of silver from them and still use the same coin. Making counterfeit coins was also a common occurrence. Newton took a firm stance on counterfeiting. He cracked down on the group of thieves known as clippers who clipped off small pieces of coins, melted down the metal and extracted the silver.

Under Newton’s wardenship, auxiliary mints were set up on different parts of the country. He supervised the processing of new coins and its distribution to various banks across the country. Newton was so successful that in 1699, within 3 years of his appointment, he was made the Master of the Royal Mint.

Isaac Newton became the president of the Royal Society in 1703. The 60-year-old Newton undertook responsibilities with his characteristic determination and energy. In the preceding years the Society had a series of politicians as its presidents. They were not concerned about the Society’s aims and the weekly meetings were no longer based on the scientific interests which laid the foundation of the Society.

Once Newton took charge, he devoted his time to bring the Society back to its old grandeur. He developed a scheme and methodology for conducting its meetings. According to the scheme, weekly meetings would have to be held, where serious discussions would take place. Moreover, he also made a provision for people with good scientific reputations to give demonstrations at the meetings. This succeeded in increasing the attendance and improving the quality of the deliberations.

The Royal Society became stronger during and following the 24 years of Newton’s presidentship. He played a significant role in making the Society into the world-famous organization it is today. However, Newton is also said to have exploited his position as the president to make public his disagreements with scientists such as John Flamsteed, the astronomer.

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Newton was invited to join the Royal Society in early 1672. The Society had distinguished personalities such as Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren as its members at the time. Newton had seen the invitation to join as a great honour.

He found a rival of his rank at the Society. It was Robert Hooke, who had been a member of the Royal Society right from its start. Hooke was a brilliant and inventive man whose mind moved from discipline to discipline, making discovery after discovery.

Though Hooke was mainly interested in mechanics, he built amazing microscopes and researched the structure of the plant cell. He was also a gifted inventor who created dozens of devices ranging from an early form of the telegraph to a diving bell.

He had also ventured into the study of combustion, musical notes and the nature of light, the last of which became the bone of contention between Hooke and Newton. The conflict between the duo began with conflicting opinions about the nature of white light. Newton presented his first paper to the Royal Society in February 1672, in which he detailed his work on the nature of light and advanced his theory that white light was a composite of all the colours of the spectrum. Newton asserted that light was composed of particles.

Hooke had his own ideas about the nature of light. He believed that light travelled in waves, in contradiction to Newton’s belief. Hooke was critical of Newton’s paper.

He went on to attack Newton’s methodology and conclusions. Hooke was certainly not the only person to take a critical stand. Huygens, the great Danish scientist and a number of French Jesuits also raised objections. However, due to his work in the same field and prominence within the society, Hooke’s remarks were the most cutting.

Newton responded to the criticism by being angry and defensive. This came to be his characteristic response to any critique of his work.

The Royal Society was the leading national organization for the promotion of scientific research in Britain. It is also the oldest national scientific society in the world.

The origin of the society can be traced back to November 28, 1660, when twelve men met. They decided to set up a College for promoting ‘Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning’. These men included scientist Robert Boyle, architect Christopher Wren, Bishop John Wilkins and the courtiers Sir Robert Moray and William, 2nd Viscount Brouncker.

Brouncker went on to become the first president of the Royal Society. King Charles II granted a royal charter for it as ‘The Royal Society’. Through the royal charter the society got an institutional structure- a president, treasurer, secretaries, and council. The society has always remained a voluntary organization, independent of the British state despite receiving royal patronage from the beginning.

The conduct and communication of science was revolutionized by the Society. In 1665 itself, Hooke’s Micrographia and the first issue of Philosophical Transactions were published. Philosophical Transactions is now the oldest continuously-published science journal in the world.

The Royal Society also published Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, and Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning.