The "Chymistry" of Isaac Newton

尽管B.J.T.Dobbs、R.Westfall、K.Figala和其他人进行了开创性的研究，但艾萨克·牛顿的“化学”论文仍然神秘。尽管牛顿在这个问题上写了大约一百万字，但其中只有一小部分被认真审查过，更少的是在当前NSF资助的项目第一阶段(2003-2006)之前编辑过的。在第二阶段(2006-2009年)，将对牛顿化学论文的其余部分进行编辑，并将进行系统的尝试，以确定手稿的年代，并以详尽和批判性的方式审查其来源。以前的历史学家在确定这样的基本问题上一直不可靠，比如哪些手稿实际上是牛顿式的作品，而不是仅仅是其他作者文字的转录或拼接。由于这些问题和其他问题，历史学家现在才开始确定牛顿的合唱团的最终目标是什么，尽管之前有强烈的说法称，牛顿在那里找到了吸引力的概念，或者他认为他的合唱团是探索宇宙背后的生命论原理的一部分。该项目的智力价值将在于纠正这些问题。这位名叫威廉·R·纽曼(William R.Newman)的私家侦探正在研究牛顿的化学，目标是撰写一本关于这一主题的新书，同时监督一个项目，将牛顿的化学论文数字化，制作在线版(在伦敦帝国理工学院牛顿项目(www.newtonproject t.ic.ac.uk)的总体指导下)。为了促进我们对牛顿化学的理解，纽曼将继续在印第安纳大学化学系的凯瑟琳·雷克的帮助下对牛顿的实验室笔记本和手稿进行研究(纽曼已经在最近的NOVA纪录片《牛顿的黑暗秘密》和英国广播公司早期制作的《牛顿：黑暗异教徒》中复制了牛顿的一些实验)。编辑化学论文的项目的第二阶段将在印第安纳大学纽曼的指导下，在印第安纳大学副图书馆员(数字图书馆项目)约翰·沃尔什的帮助下进行。约翰·霍普金斯大学的劳伦斯·M·普林斯也将参与这一项目，担任牛顿手稿的编辑、解密和注释方面的顾问。该项目的更广泛影响将是多方面的。首先，纽曼的新研究不会将牛顿对炼金术的兴趣仅仅视为他的物理学的辅助，而是将它们放在广义解释的化学史中，这将为这个主题提供一个新的、不扭曲的图景。Nova和BBC对这一项目的兴趣表明，公众也会渴望这项研究的结果。电子版将极大地帮助纽曼和其他学者研究牛顿化学计划的发展，因为电子版的单词可搜索性将提供一个强大的新工具，通过来源批评和相关技术来帮助确定手稿的相对年代。与此同时，利用印第安纳大学(http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton)，已经实施的复杂的电子编辑技术，编辑们正在制作一个非常便于公众访问的基于网络的版本。在第二阶段，电子版将使最终用户能够使用搜索和检索机制浏览文本，该机制将把一个窗口中的文字记录与相应框架中的亲笔签名文本的图像联系起来。使用屏幕上的窗口，可以操纵高分辨率的图像，并以与装订原件不同的方式将它们并列在一起。高级用户界面还将允许用户对文本的离散部分进行标记、分组、排序、重新排序和注释，从而有效地允许用户创建他或她自己的“版本”。这个项目的结果将是一个资源，不仅可供专业历史学家和其他学者使用，还可供任何对牛顿化学这一迷人主题感兴趣的人使用，包括公立学校和其他机构。

The "chymical" papers of Isaac Newton remain enigmatic despite the pioneering studies of B.J.T. Dobbs, R. Westfall, K. Figala, and others. Although Newton wrote about a million words on the subject, only a tiny fraction of this had been examined seriously and even less had been edited before the first phase of the current NSFfunded project (2003-2006). In the second phase (2006-2009), the remainder of Newton's chymical papers will be edited, and a systematic attempt will be made to determine the chronology of the manuscripts and to examine their sources in an exhaustive and critical manner. Previous historians have been unreliable in determining such basic issues as which of the manuscripts are actually Newtonian compositions as opposed to being mere transcriptions or patchwork mosaics of other authors' words. Because of these and other problems, historians are only now beginning to determine what Newton's ultimate goals for his chymistry were, despite previous strong claims that he found his concept of attractive forces there or that he saw his chymistry as part of a quest to discover the vitalistic principles that underlie the cosmos. The intellectual merit of the project will lie in rectifying these problems. The PI, William R. Newman, is researching Newton's chymistry with the goal of composing a new book on the subject, while at the same time overseeing a project to digitize Newton's chymical papers for an online edition (under the general direction of The Newton Project (www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk) at Imperial College London). In order to facilitate our understanding of Newton's chymistry, Newman will continue to carry out research on Newton's laboratory notebooks and manuscripts with the help of Cathrine Reck of the Indiana University Chemistry Department (a number of Newton's experiments have already been replicated by Newman for the recent NOVA documentary, "Newton's Dark Secrets" and for the earlier BBC production, "Newton: the Dark Heretic"). The second phase of the project for editing the chymical papers will be carried out at Indiana University under Newman's direction, with the aid of John Walsh, Associate Librarian (Digital Library Program) at Indiana University. Lawrence M. Principe of Johns Hopkins University will also collaborate on the project, as a consultant in the editing, deciphering, and annotating of Newton's manuscripts. The broader impacts of this project will be multiple. First, Newman's new study will not consider Newton's interests in alchemy merely as ancillary to his physics but will place them within the history of chemistry broadly construed, which will give a new and undistorted picture of the subject. The interest of NOVA and BBC in this project shows that the public will also be eager for the results of this research. The electronic edition will vastly aid Newman and other scholars in studying the development of Newton's chymical project, since the word-searchability of the electronic edition will provide a powerful new tool for helping to determine the relative chronology of the manuscripts by means of source criticism and related techniques. At the same time, employing sophisticated techniques of electronic editing already being implemented at Indiana University (http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton), the editors are producing a web-based edition of great accessibility to the public. In the second phase, the electronic edition will enable end-users to navigate through text using a search and retrieval mechanism that will link transcript in one window to an image of the autograph text in a corresponding frame. Using on-screen windows, it will be possible to manipulate the high-resolution images and juxtapose them in ways not possible with the bound originals. The advanced user interface will also allow a user to label, group, sequence, re-sequence, and annotate discrete sections of text, effectively allowing the user to create his or her own "edition." The result of this project will be a resource that is available not only to professional historians and other scholars, but to anyone with an interest in the fascinating subject of Newton's chymistry, including public schools and other institutions.