The age-herald., 1901-03-20
An lmmortaI's Anniversary.


 The natural law of universal gravita- tion, now familiar to every school child who hasn't fool for a teacher, was dis covered by a young Englishman named Isaac Newton about 2S5 years ago, and this 20th of March is the 174th anniver- sary of Newtons death, at the age of 75.
 Everybody who has any claims to the credit of having read anything Is fa- miliar with the Newtonian story of the falling apple; how Newton was driven from London by the Great Plague in 1865 to his country seat at Woolstrop, house still in an excellent state of preser- vation, and how one day while he was sitting on bench in his garden meditat- ing upon the deeper problems of nature he saw an apple fall, without disturbance of wind or any seen force, and how that falling apple in the calm of an English garden suggested to him the Flaw of gravitation" as we understand that force today!
 Why? the great why an apple should
 
 it parted from it's parent branch was de- manded of the great philosopher. and the answer his master mind discovered is familiar to us all. So is the story of how he in walking by the sea picked up pebble that gave him some vague con ception of the age of the earth.
 Nothing in romance, leaving cold facts of history aside, is more thrilling than the practical experiments of Isaac New tons work and his dreams realized A miscalculation of nearly one-sixth in the semi-diameter of the earth delayed for sixteen years the full exposition of his immortal discovery of universal gravita- ton. Then he gave his mind to the study of the composition of light, and by repeated experiments he startled the sci- entific world by the discovery that light Is not homogeneous, but that a ray, of white light is the resultant of innumer- able colors, rates of vibration, and re- frangibility.
 As to the earth's diameter, in 1882 a new measurement of an arc of the me- NAN'it 5eNO ANCNloli leW nope ana Iite basis for again making his calculation as to gravity. As he approached the com pletion of his calculation the apparent certainty of success caused him such in- tense agitation that he gave it to friend to finish. The result, as we all of us now know, justified Newton's intense feeling: observation and calculation corroborated each other. the crowninp 0Ior1, of orrao ( Newton's life, the magnificent theory of universal gravitation, was complete. That which required one great life in the crowning of all the centuries to discover. the school children of this March morn ing know familiarity.
 Newton was very poor during those years that brought imperishable results, so pqpr indeed that often his dues to the Royal Society were not required of him f; and toward the end of his hardest strug- gles favorite dog, a pet of his poor household, upset a candle amongst his papers and the result of twenty years of his life of toll was reduced to ashes. It is pleasing to note that the King came forward and gave Newton an office that paid $2500 or 5000 year, equivalent to $10,o0o or s12,o00 now; and shortly after wards he was prompted to a place that paid him $6OOO a peal.
 No man or woman is educated, no child of the schools advanced beyond the pri- mary grade, who do not know something of Sir Isaac Newton's life: and so this 174th anniversary of his death is of world wide interest.