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NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). Autograph letter signed ('Is. Newton') to Nicolas Fatio de Duillier ('Mr Fatio'), London, 14 September 1724, text underlined throughout, apparently by recipient, 7-line annotation to recto by recipient, docketed in a later hand on verso, ¾ page, folio, integral address leaf ('For Mr Nicholas Facio at the signe of the Cabinet in the foregate street in Worcester'), (a few short tears at folds, general light soiling, remnant of seal, seal cuts); paper wrapper with docket and summary in Fatio's hand.
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY. Newton writes of 'but a very indifferent account' he has heard of the York Buildings Companies fund [in which Fatio is evidently suggesting an investment], adding that 'I lost very much by the South Sea company which makes my pockets empty, & my mind averse from dealing in these matters'; Newton has found that Fatio's name has been left off the Royal Society lists for the last ten years, although he cannot find the reason -- but adds 'as you never were admitted so you never were expelled'. Still on Royal Society matters, he invites Fatio to 'send me your explication of the cause of those crowns of colours w[hi]ch sometimes appear about the Sun & Moon', with a view to it being submitted before the Society. Fatio's annotation challenges Newton's account of his membership of the Royal Society: 'Here Sr Isaac is out. I was elected in 1687; and solemnly admitted in 1688 ...'.
The Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (1664-1753) was a close associate of Newton's and of David Gregory from his arrival in England in 1687; as he notes here, he was admitted as FRS on 2 May 1688. His eventful life included the patenting of the use of jewelled bearings in watches, foiling a plot against William of Orange in 1686, and being pilloried at Charing Cross in 1707 for associating with the Camisards (a sect of fanatical prophets from the Cevennes): it was together with the Camisards that he established the unsuccessful York Buildings Company (although the ODNB's dating of this enterprise as 'about 1730' seems inaccurate on the basis of the present letter). Fatio spent the last decades of his life, from 1717, living in or near the city of Worcester.
Six letters from Newton to Fatio are published (one from a printed source) in The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H.W. Turnbull et al, 1959-1976, and one other was offered at auction in 1991, but these are all from the period of Newton and Fatio's greates intimacy in 1689-1693. Although the Correspondence publishes a letter from Fatio to Newton in April 1724, the present letter is APPARENTLY UNKNOWN AND UNPUBLISHED.
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY. Newton writes of 'but a very indifferent account' he has heard of the York Buildings Companies fund [in which Fatio is evidently suggesting an investment], adding that 'I lost very much by the South Sea company which makes my pockets empty, & my mind averse from dealing in these matters'; Newton has found that Fatio's name has been left off the Royal Society lists for the last ten years, although he cannot find the reason -- but adds 'as you never were admitted so you never were expelled'. Still on Royal Society matters, he invites Fatio to 'send me your explication of the cause of those crowns of colours w[hi]ch sometimes appear about the Sun & Moon', with a view to it being submitted before the Society. Fatio's annotation challenges Newton's account of his membership of the Royal Society: 'Here Sr Isaac is out. I was elected in 1687; and solemnly admitted in 1688 ...'.
The Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (1664-1753) was a close associate of Newton's and of David Gregory from his arrival in England in 1687; as he notes here, he was admitted as FRS on 2 May 1688. His eventful life included the patenting of the use of jewelled bearings in watches, foiling a plot against William of Orange in 1686, and being pilloried at Charing Cross in 1707 for associating with the Camisards (a sect of fanatical prophets from the Cevennes): it was together with the Camisards that he established the unsuccessful York Buildings Company (although the ODNB's dating of this enterprise as 'about 1730' seems inaccurate on the basis of the present letter). Fatio spent the last decades of his life, from 1717, living in or near the city of Worcester.
Six letters from Newton to Fatio are published (one from a printed source) in The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H.W. Turnbull et al, 1959-1976, and one other was offered at auction in 1991, but these are all from the period of Newton and Fatio's greates intimacy in 1689-1693. Although the Correspondence publishes a letter from Fatio to Newton in April 1724, the present letter is APPARENTLY UNKNOWN AND UNPUBLISHED.
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