The Clarks make no bones about it: Sir Issac Newton was one of the greatest scientific minds of the his time. Of all time, in fact. Newton was the symbol of the triumph of science over superstition.

But Newton had a darker side. Despite the fame and recognition he had received, Newton refused to let anyone threaten to overshadow him or stand in his way of greater achievements.

Reverend John Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal - a position he held for 44 years serving under 6 kings. He spent his night in the observatory of Greenwich gazing through telescopes, cataloguing the stars. Newton wanted this information to figure out a better way to navigate to oceans, a major problem in his day. He was convinced Flamsteed was holding back the critical information he needed. For that, Newton used all the considerable power at his disposal to end the career of Flamseed. He almost suceeded. It was only because of the dedication of Flamsteed's widow that his 3-volumn Historia Coelestis Britannica was published.

Today, because of Flamsteed's work, we measure longitude from the place he accomlished his work - Greenwich.

The work of Stephen Gray is less known. A commoner trained as a dyer, he was a most unlikely member of the Royal Society.

Gray was a long time friend of Flamsteed. He carried on a regular coorespondence with the elder scientist, sharing with him his own celestial observations.

But it was Gray's pioneering work in using electricity for communications that earned him immortality. Work, that if not for Newton, may have been accomplished 20 years sooner.

Humans need heroes, and those prominent in any field are often portrayed as ideals no matter how flawed they may be in real life. The Clarks, scientists from the UK, have written a fascinating historical study of Isaac Newton, Astronomer Royal Flamsteed, and amateur scientist Gray with the intention of demythologizing Newton and giving Flamsteed and Gray what the authors consider to be their proper place in the development of 17th- and 18th-century science. Gray's contributions to the field of electricity and electrical communications and evidence for Newton's suppression of Gray's work are discussed in some detail together with Flamsteed's work in astronomy; the relationships between Flamsteed, Newton, and Gray; and the political and social climates of the times. The book was not written to demean Newton's accomplishments; the authors devote a fair amount of space to a discussion of Flamsteed's personal foibles that made the feud (concerning Flamsteed's astronomical data supplied t o Newton) between him and Newton difficult to avoid. In the words of the authors, "His [Newton's] genius would survive any detailed scrutiny, but the failure to recognize his aggressive character and his tyrannical behavior meant that the genius of others, including Flamsteed and Gray, was not recognized." All levels.

This is a quick read that is both well-written and well-organized. The authors take few diversions - historical, rhetorical, or empirical - from describing the relations among the characters in the title: the credentialed Newton, the laborious Gray, and the intermediary Flamsteed. The result is a concise and enjoyable report on what is known and what can be reasonably surmised about the relative contributions of these men. There is sufficient detail (and sufficient lack of colouring) to make the book of interest to scientists, and to historians and sociologists of science. But there the book is sufficiently accessibile, and the subject matter sufficiently finite to make it equally appealing to anyone with interest in such topics as politics, organizations, and astronomy, not to mention Newton and his era.