Newton's Principia Needed Halley's Money

In 1686, Britain's Royal Society wanted to publish English physicist Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, but it was nearly bankrupt. The society had poured its money into Historia Piscium, or History of Fishes, a lavishly illustrated book by naturalists John Ray and Francis Willughby that sold poorly. English scientist Edmond Halley raised the money for Newton's book and paid much of the printing cost himself, allowing Principia to appear in 1687. The Royal Society later told Halley it could not afford his salary and offered him unsold copies of the fish book instead.

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