Andrew+Week+4

It came as a surprise when reading “Newton and Alchemy” that the famed Issac Newton was actually an alchemist or chymist. Traditionally Newton is lauded as a great physicist and a father of the field with no mention of pursuits into alchemy, especially not as a possible driving force behind his endeavors. This connection contrasts even more with the usual connotation of the alchemist as being a fools science in an attempt to turn lead into gold. The article turns this on it's side as well, rounding out the purpose and definition of alchemy.

Alchemy had multiple beneficial results beyond the desired production of gold. It lead to advances in the manufacture of dyes, pigments, mineral acids, medicine, and many other commercially viable products. Such connections affirming that while it still had a mysticism that separated it from modern chemistry the name “chymistry” is deserved due to the resemblance of the two fields. While not to bring up the debate over what is science, alchemy appears to be a mixture of what we might call chemistry and a basic idea of theology.

Newton's presence in the field of alchemy brings up a few questions. In all of his research and studies, what was his real goal? Did his advancement in the areas of physics come in some part from his alchemical desires. It also detracts from the textbook teachings of Newton. He's taught as a brilliant physical mastermind but some of the ideas he accepted seem to make him out to be a tad crazy. In his writings he believed that minerals and metals were like vegetation and grew within the earth in resulting in the formation of veins. While it can be said that with the avaliable perspectives of the time that this may have appeared to be the truth, atleast in my opinion, this seems to be an excessive simplicfication of logic. That less “science” and more faith and desire came into play. Some quotes from William R. Newman's piece, I believe, illistrates my point.

“But Newton’s updating and expanding of alchemical concepts becomes still more apparent when he combines the //sal nitrum// theory with a mechanical explanation of gravity. Sendivogius had argued that there was a circulation of the volatile niter found within the earth such that it was driven up through the earth’s surface and high into the atmosphere. In the higher reaches, the volatile niter acquired the virtues of the stars and planets, whereupon it returned to earth and acted as a universal principle of generation. Newton here enlarges on this idea by making an ethereal cognate to the volatile niter that is a principle not only of generation but of gravitation – as the ether returns to the earth, it is driven downwards at an incredible rate, and in its descent the ether carries down other bodies. Upon reaching the earth, the ether gradually becomes “condensed and interwoven with the bodies it meets there,” acting as a “tender ferment” or active agency within matter. Interestingly, Newton suggests that the ether may be “intangled” with a spirit that is itself “the body of light.” Sendivogius had argued that every body contains at its core a //scintilla lucis//, a “spark of light,” that is 1/8200 of the body (whether by weight or by volume is unclear).”

In Newton's explanations he's using and accepting mystical niters, ethers, spirits, bodies of light, etc to describe gravity. This is hard to explain away as this just being the best way that logical and technology allowed them to see. It's heavily spiritual and philosophical, developed in the mind and not in practice. For someone that we regard as having been a logical and methodical person, it's somewhat of a shock and makes him seem tad crazy.