Theory of light and colours
Date
9 December 1675
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p75
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 362mm
width (page): 225mm
width (page): 225mm
Subject
Content object
Description
This paper, elaborating on his theory of light, was enclosed in a letter by Isaac Newton to Henry Oldenburg dated 7 December 1675, and read at the meeting on 9 December 1675.
This diagram shows a prism and its refracting properties.
This diagram shows a prism and its refracting properties.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 9 December 1675, ‘There was produced a manuscript of Mr. Newton, touching his theory of light and colours, containing partly an hypothesis to explain the properties of light discoursed of by him in his former papers, partly the principal phaenomena of the various colours exhibited by thin plates and bubbles, esteemed by him to be of a more difficult consideration; yet to depend also on the said properties of light. Of the hypothesis only the first part was read, giving an account of refraction, reflection, transparency and opacity; the second part explaining colours being referred to the next meeting’ (Birch 3:247). The reading was continued on 16 December 1675. The text and diagram of the first paper are printed in Birch 3:247-60, and the second at pp. 262-69.
Related fellows
Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727, British) , Natural philosopher
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Associated place