According to the popular legend, the great scientist, being a member of the House of Commons, took the floor only once, but his replica had nothing to do with state affairs. We checked how true this story is.

Here's what the Russian textbook for universities reports about Newton "Mathematics. Informatics", published in 2008: “In 1705, he was built for scientific works to the noble rank. As a member of the House of Lords, for all the time he made only one speech: "If the Lords do not mind, I would ask to close the window, from which it is very blowing." But Newton's biography published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, speaks Other: it was in the House of Commons, where the physicist hit in 1688 from his university.

This legend is popular in different variations as in Russia (books "The life of wonderful people", “Isaac Newton. His life and scientific activity ", newspaper "Business Petersburg"), and in the West (History.com, Mentallfloss, Factslides).

Firstly, we will clarify the uncertainty with Newton's stay in the English parliament. British portal The History of Parliament reportsthat the great scientist was elected to the House of Commons (not Lords) twice: in 1689–1690 and 1701–1702, both times from the University of Cambridge. It should be noted that at the time of the second election, Newton already held a much more noticeable public position - a caretaker, and then the director of the royal mint. In this post, he convinced the British government to change silver to gold as a monetary standard, legally established the exact maintenance of metals in the coins and was remembered by his the struggle against the counterfeiters.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to call Newton’s active politician. It is known that, according to political views, the scientist was a Vigg (the predecessors of the current liberal party of Great Britain. - Approx. Author), and also spoke quite hard in relation to Catholicism, being a radical Protestant. He did not differ in the sociability necessary for a successful parliamentarian, "he closed in his thoughts, he spoke very little in the company, so it was unpleasant to talk with him." From the point of view of formal activity in the Newton Parliament, I remembered Three legislative initiatives In his first time, and during the second period he introduced and broke the project to extend the action of the law on the prevention of falsification of coins, in respect of which he, like a civil servant, had professional interest.

The portal also reports that at the end of the term in 1702, Isaac Newton refused to re-elect to parliament, informing the vice-chancellor and friends, which is too sick to personally collect votes for himself, and, therefore, does not consider it possible to stay. He preferred to "sit quietly" and "convey the line to other gentlemen." Well, in 1705, Newton still succumbed to the persuasion of his associates, but he lost the elections.

So what about speeches? History did not preserve a single performance by Isaac Newton at his being a member of the House of Commons, including a statement about the window (in the original - about the window). However, for example, for certain It is knownthat in 1714 Newton and the famous astronomer Edmund Galley performed Before the parliamentary commission of the House of Commons on the determination of geographical longitude in the open sea. Also in the literature often It is mentioned Reports For the House of Commons, which could well be honored by the author personally. In addition, we must not forget about the case when Newton, still a member of the parliament, promoted his own bill on counterfeiting - according to unspoken traditions, he had to introduce him himself. From all this, we can conclude that the story of the window is nothing more than a historical joke, albeit based on the true character of a great scientist.