Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light.: Also Two Treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures.

London: printed for Sam. Smith, and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society,, 1704. Newton defines colour through mathematics First edition, first issue, without the author's name on the title page. Newton's Opticks expounds his corpuscular theory of light and summarizes his experiments concerning light and colour. It also prints two important mathematical treatises (omitted in later editions) describing his invention of the fluxional calculus, the grounds for his claim of priority over Leibniz. Newton arrived at most of his unconventional ideas on colour by about 1668, and Opticks was largely complete by 1692. However, when he first partially expressed his theories in public, in 1672 and 1675, they provoked hostile criticism, especially on the continent. As a result, Newton delayed the publication of Opticks until his most vociferous critics - especially Robert Hooke - were dead. Unusually for Newton, and in what was probably a further defensive move, the work was first published in English rather than Latin, becoming a major contribution to the development of vernacular scientific literature. By about 1715, Opticks established itself as a model for interweaving theory with quantitative experimentation. Newton's aim was not to "explain the properties of light by hypotheses, but to propose and prove them by reason and experiments" (p. 1). The great achievement of the work was to show that colour was a mathematically definable property. Newton demonstrates that white light is a mixture of infinitely varied coloured rays (manifest in the rainbow and the spectrum) and that each ray is definable by the angle through which it is refracted on entering or leaving a given transparent medium. "Newton's Opticks did for light what his Principia had done for gravitation, namely place it on a scientific basis" (D. W. Brown, cited in Babson). Other topics discussed in this groundbreaking work include the degree of refraction associated with different colours, theories of the rainbow, colour circles, Newton's rings, and reflective lenses. Provenance: from the distinguished library of the Northern Lighthouse Board, with their device stamped on the spine. The board was founded in 1786 to remedy the fact that none of the major passages through dangerous narrows in Scotland were marked. Headed by the Stevenson family of engineers - of which novelist Robert Louis Stevenson was a member - the Board embarked upon an ambitious construction scheme and still operates over 200 lighthouses today. This volume, along with a portion of their library - with strong holdings across the applied sciences, exploration, maritime, and local geography - was offered at auction in 2010 to raise funds for heritage projects. Quarto (233 x 186 mm). Late 19th-century tan calf, spine divided into 6 compartments with raised bands and gilt fillets, Northern Light Board device gilt-stamped to first, black calf label to second, gilt scrollwork motifs to remainder, covers framed with triple fillet in blind, red and blue sprinkled edges. 19 engraved plates, of which 2 folding, charts and diagrams within text, title page printed in black and red within double-ruled border. Extremities rubbed, a few minor marks to calf but presenting handsomely, endleaves browned from turn-ins and initial blank browned facing title page, contents and plates lightly foxed in places but generally clean, with a few finger marks and pencilled annotations in margins, intermittent faint damp stain at lower outer corners, some plates a little trimmed in the binding process (just touching a few captions and images), thin paper stock of Nn4 resulting in short closed tear at fore edge expertly repaired. Overall a crisp, bright copy in a very smart calf binding. Babson 132 (1); ESTC T82019; Gray 174; Horblit 79b; Norman 1588; Printing and the Mind of Man 172.