If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Book Review: Newton and the Counterfeiter
Released earlier this year, Thomas Levenson's _Newton and the
Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist_ takes you to London, 1699. Having been rebuilt only a generation before, following the Great Fire of 1666, the town is at once opulent and squalid, close and large. An award-winning video producer for PBS Nova, Levenson delivers a narrative that is rich with sensory adjectives. To be sure, this is creative non-fiction. Meeting a counterfeiter in a pub, "Newton swallowed his impatience." Whether he did or not is beyond assessment. The book is nonetheless factual. Levenson teaches science journalism at MIT, so it is no surprise that 150 footnotes and another 150 bibliographic entries support the story. Whether or not Newton's career as an investigator and prosecutor is "unknown" may also be putative. Certainly, numismatists have known of it, since Sir John Craig's works. (Sir John Craig was Deputy Master and Comptroller of the British Royal Mint.) _Newton at the Mint_ (Cambridge: University Press, 1946). "Isaac Newton—Crime Investigator," _Nature_ 182, 149-152 (19 July 1958) "Isaac Newton and the Counterfeiters." _Notes and Records of the Royal Society_ 18), London: 1963. Levenson cites those; and he nods to Richard Westfall, widely regarded as the most complete and accurate of Newton's biographers. Westfall's book, _Never at Rest_, touches only lightly on the matter at hand. As the Warden (and later Master) of the British Royal Mint, Newton was responsible for taking action against counterfeiters. Realize though that the same duty had fallen to previous wardens who did little. They did little about counterfeiting and little else besides. The job was supposed to be a sinecure for a gentleman. But Newton was a hands- on kind of guy. As a young man, to investigate the action of light within the eye, he inserted a dagger (bodkin) between his eyeball and socket to deform the sensory organ and record the results. When working mathematics problems, he forgot to eat -- and performed the work in his head before committing it to paper. Paper drafts we have in the multiples. He copied everything important, even as he edited it. Thus, he left behind two fat folios of depositions and interrogations as he invested two hard years running down London's false coiners. Among the papers are his receipts for the disguises he wore and the ale he bought while undercover in dank and dangerous pubs, meeting informants and informers. Levenson introduces Newton, brieftly, but accurately. Newton, presumably, we know. Then, we meet Chaloner. Levenson uncovered Chaloner's own publications as well as an anonymous biography published after his hanging. Chaloner was an escaped apprentice. His only lawful skills were in making nails and painting clothes. But he was a master rogue. From selling fake watches, he moved into fake coins. (He would have had a great time on eBay.) He sought the good things in life and achieved some of them, actually giving testimony to Parliamentary committees and (temporarily) having the attention of the Earl of Monmouth, Lord of the Treasury, and being paid well by the Crown for informing on criminals, some of whom he entrapped in conspiracies of his own design. In addition, of course, he had his income from counterfeiting. Chaloner was clever. But Newton was brilliant. Counterfeiting was the death of William Chaloner. This book is in print, it retails for $25. I borrowed it from my university library while waiting for coupons from Borders. Barnes and Noble has it for $20 online. Other great deals are out there, of course, but in any case, any numismatist's bookshelf will be graced by its acquistion. You can view a video trailer for the book several ways. Goto the Barnes and Noble website. Select BN Media and enter "Newton and the Counterfeiter" in the Search box. The same video is on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_1Vr1-xc6c And YouTube is where the publisher posted the same video http://www.youtube.com/v/W_1Vr1-xc6c&hl=en&fs=1 Mike M. Michael E. Marotta "Seldom at rest." |
Ads |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Book Review: US Pattern Coins | Mike Marotta | Coins | 0 | February 7th 09 02:13 AM |
Book Review: Guide Book of Peace Dollars | Mike Marotta | Coins | 0 | January 7th 09 04:48 AM |
Book Review: A Guide Book of Lincoln Cents | Mike Marotta | Coins | 3 | January 10th 08 08:32 PM |
My Book Review Site | [email protected] | Books | 0 | October 8th 07 04:19 AM |
Book Review Zecca | Jorg Lueke | Coins | 1 | December 29th 06 11:03 PM |