Isaac Newton Chymistry Online
Although this is not part of the normal fare found on this site, it is extremely interesting. This site mentioned on boingboing.net has some incredible translations of Newtons’ original chymistry(Alchemy) manuscripts. This is doubly interesting to me, since I am currently finishing up the Baroque Cycle 3 book series by Neal Stephenson. This series of books features Isaac Newton as one of the protagonists, and really gives some neat insight into science in the early 1700′s. The entire series is worth a read. But back to the online manuscripts, which contain some really interesting notes regarding the experiments Newton did. The Laboratory Notebook contains some really interesting/odd items including:
- Optical experiments where Newton probed the back of his eye with a bodkin(blunt needle) to see what the optical effect would be
- Descriptions of using urine to create phosphorus
- Using urine extract as a remedy for sinus congestion
The list goes on and on. The really cool thing, is that each transcribed page has been scanned, so you can see an image of the original text.
Check it out here: The Chymistry of Isaac Newton
