Sir Isaac Newton told William Stukeley about the day when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking about the solar system.
Most people know the story of Newton’s apple: how the great mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton, stumbled onto the principle of gravitation when he saw an apple fall from a tree. In his Memoirs of Newton’s Life (1752) William Stukeley not only confirmed the truth of the tale from Newton’s own lips, but also gave us a glimpse of the astonishing fertility of mind that followed.
Sir Isaac’s secretary has left us an engaging portrait of a kindly genius, the absent-minded professor of our fancy.
In 1685, Sir Isaac Newton engaged a secretary to help him with his increasing workload, a Mr Humphrey Newton who was, it seems, no relation of the great mathematician. Many years later John Conduitt, Newton’s successor as Master of the Mint and also the great man’s nephew by marriage, asked Humphrey to supply him with his recollections of Sir Isaac.