How to make a virtue of self-isolation: the plague and Isaac Newton's year of invention

A couple of years ago I made a pilgrimage to the farmhouse in northern England where Isaac Newton self-isolated during the plague year 1665-66. How he passed the time there may provide some inspiration in the coming days of national quarantine.

His year of self-isolation - and invention. A painting of Sir Isaac Newton, c1703.

Newton was 23, a student at Cambridge. When the black plague spread there from London, he retreated to his birthplace – Woolsthorpe Manor, near the town of Grantham (later the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher). During what he called his “annus mirabilis”, or wonderful year, at Woolsthorpe, Newton did three significant things:

He invented the mathematical system called calculus,

He drilled a hole in the shutter of his bedroom window and held a prism up to the beam of sunlight that came through it, discovering that white light is made up of every colour (and giving Pink Floyd an iconic album cover), and

He watched apples falling from the trees in his garden and theorised about a force called gravity, which keeps the moon revolving around panet Earth. (He later wrote: “I can calculate the movement of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”)

The view from Isaac Newton's home to his apple trees, still bearing fruit that reliably fail to defy gravity.

During my tour of his house, I kept looking out the window, in an attempt to see the apple trees. This annoyed my guide. To drag my attention back to her monologue, she grasped my arm and said: “Here’s a fascinating fact. Did you know that Isaac Newton was born the day after Galileo died? What would a Buddhist make of that!”

I supposed a Buddhist might conclude that every genius in history is actually a single soul, passing from body to body over millennia. I briefly wondered if it might be possible to trace a line of genius deaths and births from Moses to Newton and then right through to Albert Einstein (and onwards to Elon Musk?), but a little research revealed that the guide had been exaggerating somewhat. Galileo died on January 8, 1642. Newton was born on January 4, 1643.

The fruit from Isaac Newton's trees, which the author found a little sour.

So I developed another theory – that Newton’s year of intellectual miracles could be explained by what he was eating; that is, there was something in the apples. The guide let me collect four apples from under Newton’s tree. I ate two on the train back to London, and the other two the next day. They tasted sour. They do not seem to have boosted my IQ by a single point.

So perhaps there’s a simpler explanation. During his year of self-isolation, in the absence of Netflix, Isaac Newton let his imagination run free. He was able to take advantage of the interesting times in which he lived.

David Dale teaches media at the University of NSW.