Czy Isaac Newton wynalazł napęd odrzutowy

Since the 19th century, both popular and professional literature presented a possibility according to which Isaac Newton to some extent contributed to the invention of jet propulsion. In the present paper, this view is carefully analyzed. Various authors attributed to Newton the design of a road vehicle (the so-called Newton’s steamcarriage) moved by ejection of hot steam. This opinion was expressed in certain works written by the first supporters of Newton (e.g. J.W. ’s-Gravenzande, J.T. Desaguliers, J.A. Nollet). What’s more, there are miniature models of such vehicle present in some collections of scientific instruments. Relying on the above examples, it would be hard to prove that Newton was indeed the true inventor of the jet propulsion. However, there is no doubt that he was very interested in various engineering issues and was the inventor of several scientific instruments (e.g. the variant of a reflecting telescope, a sea octant, a rotary slide rule).