Isaac Newton’s beer mug and boozy ink recipes
A 'valuable relic' and 'excellent' formula which have both 'endured many years'.
Last month I made a special trip to the Royal Society in London. It’s the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, which first met in November 1660, following a lecture by architect, astronomer, and mathematician Sir Christopher Wren. Among its members was physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton.
It was Newton (1642-1727) who inspired my visit. Or, more accurately, Newton’s beer mug. The lidded wooden vessel was on public display for just a few weeks in March, for the first time in 160 years. The occasion: to mark the end of a 20-year research project exploring both its provenance and Newton’s relationship to beer.
The result of the project – by molecular biologist Carmichael Wallace (whose family owns the mug) and historian Stephen Snobelen, Professors at Dalhousie University and King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia – has been published in the Royal Society’s journal, ‘Notes and Records’.
To modern eyes, the mug, or ‘flagon’ as it would’ve been known in Newton’s time, is small. It’s just under 16cm tall, about 9cm at its widest, and 5.7cm at its rim. It resembles a little wine barrel, with 16 ‘staves’ (vertical strips of wood) likely made of maple, and horizontal strapping made of willow. Its handle (the hole of which looks impractically small) and lid could be walnut, chestnut, or oak. Today, you can see light between the staves and it’s no longer water-tight, but in its day, the mug would’ve held about 480ml (85% of a British imperial pint).
The mug can be traced back to Newton’s time at Trinity College, Cambridge University, where, between 1665 and 1683, he shared at times both a single and adjoining rooms with John Wikins.
Wikins was a few years Newton’s junior, but they began rooming together after each being dissatisfied with their originally assigned ‘disorderly companions’. They occasionally collaborated, with Wickins helping construct Newton’s ‘third and best’ reflecting microscope. Writing in Wickins’ hand can be found in several of Newton’s notebooks and manuscripts.
The pair stayed in touch after Wickins left Cambridge and became the rector of St Mary the Virgin Church in Herefordshire in the West Midlands of England. When Newton left his residence at Cambridge around 1696, he gifted his furniture and some other items – including the beer mug – to Wickins.
From there, the mug can be traced to Wickins’ grandson, James, who wrote to ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’ in 1802, describing the mug as being “preserve[d] as a valuable relique” by the family. James’ daughter, Elizabeth Wickins – who exhibited the mug three times between 1849-1865 – left it to her friends Barbara and Ambrose Hussey/Hussey-Freke. It passed through two more generations of the Hussey-Freke family, before being bequeathed to a niece in the Wallace family in Canada, in 1986.
The paper says: “The vessel’s survival intact through two families and multiple relocations is a testament to the value the men and women who owned it placed on it.”
So, it can confidently be said that the mug did indeed belong to Isaac Newton. But what was his relationship with beer?
Newton’s assistant from 1683-1688, Humphrey Newton (no relation), recalled in 1728: “I cannot say, I ever saw him drink, either wine Ale or Bear, excepting Meals, & then but very sparingly”.
But there is plenty of evidence of beer and other alcohol in Newton’s life, and the processes of its production in his work.
Among his surviving notebooks are references to various expenses, including 'beere', trips to taverns, and '3 beer stands' for his room at Cambridge. While at the university he received 'regular allotments of beer', plus dividends from the College brewhouse. In London he was known to hold meetings in taverns, and the inventory of his home at his death included stored wine, cider, and beer (which regardless of his own consumption, would have been important supplies in the running of a household that included servants and frequent guests).
In his writings, he documented adapting a 'steen' (German stein) for use in distillation and mentioned ‘barm’ (the froth that forms during beer fermentation) when writing about putrefaction. He even compared milk curdled by the addition of beer to the 'rugged and mountanous' Earth created by God, as described in ‘Genesis’. He noted experiments in brewing his own beer and the need to be patient to avoid a ‘tang’ in the taste. He also wrote to Royal Society secretary, Henry Oldenburg, for advice on making good cider.
Where we can be absolutely sure of Newton’s use of beer is in his ink. Two recipes written in Newton’s hand survive.
The first is in his Pocket Memorandum Notebook, written from 1659 to the early 1660s:
How to make excellent good writing Ink.
A quart of claret, or white wine or Raine water, or strong beare wort.
Galls, if 4/5 ounces, yn Copperice 4/3 ounces.
Gum Arabick 3 Ounces
Ising glasse 2 penny worth.
Mingle these together & let it stand nine days stirring it once a day. & then make use of it.
One spoonfull of bay salt will keepe it from moulding & one glasse of sack from freezing.
Let noe small dust of Galls or copperice bee put into ye inke for that doth clogge ye penn in writing.
The second comes from his laboratory notebooks, which range from c.1669 to c.1693. The recipe is early in the books, so likely closer to the beginning of the date range:
To make excellent Ink.
℞ ½lb of Galls cut in pieces or grosly beaten, ¼lb of Gumm Arabick cut or broken. Put ’em into a Quart of strong bear or Ale. Let ’em stand a month stopt up, stirring them now & then. At ye end of the moneth put in 1 oz. or 1½ oz. of copperas (Too much copperas makes ye ink apt to turn yellow.) Stir it & use it. Stop it up for some time with a paper prickt full of holes & let it stand in ye sunn. When you take out ink put in so much strong beer & it will endure many years. Water makes it apt to mold. Wine does not. The air also if it stand open inclines it to mold. With this Ink new made I wrote this.
An astonishing 10million words written by Newton’s hand survive, covering topics from natural philosophy and theology to his administration of the Royal Mint from 1696-1727. Ink was crucial to his work. Indeed, the authors of the paper say it’s “one of the most valued commodities” of the Early Modern scholar.
“When Newton penned, with the very beer-based ink in which this recipe is written, the words ‘it will endure many years’, he wrote more truly than he likely imagined. As any researcher who has worked with Newton’s manuscripts can with gratitude affirm: his ink has stood the test of time. Whether black or brown it still looks as if newly penned. […]
“Whether Newton imbibed beer from this surviving flagon while composing his innovative works of science will have to remain in the realm of the imagination. However, chemical analysis might in the future be able to confirm through organic residues what is implied by the ink recipes quoted here: that Isaac Newton’s great work the ‘Principia Mathematica’ was written in beer.”
I considered having a go at making my own ink to Newton’s recipe, but who’s got the time to go out searching for oak galls?! Particularly when L. Cornelissen & Son sell a ready-made version using the second recipe above.
