Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire" - Hardcover

"The topic of Newton's alchemy has been a cause celebre for more than a generation, thanks to what too many people have viewed as a puzzling juxtaposition between the `rationalist scientist' Newton and `irrational, pseudoscientific' alchemy. The time is ripe for a new understanding of Newton and alchemy, and there is certainly no more capable person to do this than William Newman."-Lawrence M. Principe, author of The Secrets of Alchemy "Combining scrupulous textual analysis of Isaac Newton's surviving alchemical manuscripts, some examined for the first time, with extensive replications of his actual laboratory operations, William Newman provides a fresh and convincing new road map of Newton's decades-long journey of chymical inquiry. An engaging read, and a scholarly triumph."-Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University "Newton the Alchemist is a tour de force proving beyond any doubt Newton's extraordinary debt to `chymistry,' the alchemical art of analysis and synthesis. A magnificent achievement, this book stands as the definitive treatment of Newton on alchemy."-Jed Z. Buchwald, coauthor of Newton and the Origin of Civilization "[A] brilliantly detailed book. . . . Newman's patient research has produced a masterpiece of scientific history . . . that will still be read in a century."---Dmitri Levitin, Literary Review

A book that finally demystifies Newton's experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton's alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby's auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became "the last of the magicians." Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton's alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton's actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton's alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton's alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of "chymistry," Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher's stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.