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Some of his friends, no doubt, advised Isaac's grandmother to apprentice him to a clockmaker; for, besides his mechanical skill, the boy seemed to have a taste for mathematics, which would be very useful to him in that profession. And then, in due time, Isaac would set up for himself, and would manufacture curious clocks, like those that contain sets of dancing figures, which issue from the dial-plate when the hour is struck; or like those, where a ship sails across the face of the clock, and is seen tossing up and down on the waves, as often as the pendulum vibrates.
Indeed, there was some ground for supposing that Isaac would devote himself to the manufacture of clocks; since he had already made one, of a kind which nobody had ever heard of before. It was set going, not by wheels and weights, like other clocks, but by the dropping of water. This was an object of great wonderment to all the people in the neighbourhood; and it must be confessed that there are few boys, or men either, who could contrive to tell what o'clock it is, by means of a bowl of water.
Besides the water-clock, Isaac made a sun-dial. Thus his grandmother was never at a loss to know the hour; for the water-clock would tell it in the shade, and the dial in the sunshine. The sun-dial is said to be still in existence at Woolsthorpe, on the corner of the house where Isaac dwelt.
Isaac possessed a wonderful faculty of acquiring knowledge by the simplest means. For instance, what method do you suppose he took, to find out the strength of the wind?. He jumped against the wind; and by the length of his jump, he could calculate the force of a gentle breeze, a brisk gale, or a tempest. Thus, even in his boyish sports, he was continually searching out the secrets of philosophy.
Indeed, there was some ground for supposing that Isaac would devote himself to the manufacture of clocks; since he had already made one, of a kind which nobody had ever heard of before. It was set going, not by wheels and weights, like other clocks, but by the dropping of water. This was an object of great wonderment to all the people in the neighbourhood; and it must be confessed that there are few boys, or men either, who could contrive to tell what o'clock it is, by means of a bowl of water.
Besides the water-clock, Isaac made a sun-dial. Thus his grandmother was never at a loss to know the hour; for the water-clock would tell it in the shade, and the dial in the sunshine. The sun-dial is said to be still in existence at Woolsthorpe, on the corner of the house where Isaac dwelt.
Isaac possessed a wonderful faculty of acquiring knowledge by the simplest means. For instance, what method do you suppose he took, to find out the strength of the wind?. He jumped against the wind; and by the length of his jump, he could calculate the force of a gentle breeze, a brisk gale, or a tempest. Thus, even in his boyish sports, he was continually searching out the secrets of philosophy.
Explanation:
Isaac seemed to love mathematics, apart from his mechanical skills. Hence, some of Isaac's friends told Isaac's grandmother to train him to become a clockmaker. He could apply his mathematical skills in the clock making profession. As time progressed, Isaac started making clocks for himself. He made strange clocks - some had a set of dancing figures which sprung out of the dial plate, every time the hour struck. He also made clocks where a ships sails across the face of the clock and showed the flowing up and down of the waves, whenever the pendulum vibrated.
Clockmaking requires mathematical and mechanical skills!
There were instances to believe that Isaac would dedicate his skills to make clocks - he had already manufactured a clock, which nobody had heard of. He made the clockwork by drops of water - it did not have wheels or weights like a normal clock. All his neighbours were amazed to see this object. There were some boys and some men who only tried to tell the time, with the help of a bowl of water.
After the water-clock, he also made a sundial. A sundial is a device that tells the time of the day when there is sunlight, with the help of the shadow based on the position of the sun in the sky. When it was night time, his grandmother found the time with the help of water-clock, and during the day, with the sundial. The sundial made by Isaac can still be seen in Woolsthorpe, in a corner house, where he lived.
*Newton's sundial - can be seen today in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire.
Isaac had a great inbuilt mental power for getting knowledge from simple things. For example, do you know what method he adopted to find out the strength of the wind? He simply jumped against the wind - with the length of his jump, he calculated the force of the wind. He was able to differentiate between a gentle breeze, a very strong wind and a violent windy storm. Thus he used simple techniques like his everyday sports in searching for answers of great theories.
He jumped against the wind to calculate its force!
Meanings of difficult words:
No. | Words | Meanings |
1 | apprentice | employ (someone) as a trainee to a skilled employer |
2 | faculty | an inherent mental or physical power |
3 | gale | very strong wind |
4 | tempest | violent windy storm |
Reference:
*Image courtesy - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newton_sundial_1.jpg
State Council of Educational Research and Training (2019). Term-2 English Standard-8. Sir Isaac Newton- The Ingenious Scientist (pp. 84-97). Published by the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation
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