[HM] Isaac Newton


Subject: [HM] Isaac Newton
From: James A. Landau (JJJRLandau@aol.com)
Date: Tue Feb 15 2000 - 10:02:57 EST


Subject: Sir Isaac Newton: 1) ancestry 2) cosmology

The 1835 American edition of David Brewster _The Life of Sir Isaac Newton_
contains two interesting appendices.

One deals with the question of Newton's ancestry, specifically whether
Newton's "grandfather was a gentleman of East Lothian [Edinburgh, Scotland];
that he came to London with King James...and there spent his fortune".
I have not seen this material elsewhere.

The other is a letter by John Conduit (Newton's nephew-in-law) recollecting
a conversation in which Newton speculated on the formation of planets, what
supernovae were, how the sun was "replenished", and whether the sun would go
nova.

I have posted these two appendices on the World Wide Web at URL
       http://redrival.com/fryingpan/newton.htm

(note that the URL ends in "htm" not "html")

James A. Landau



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