All Was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks

by A. Rupert Hall

Opticks , Newton's most popular book, is a complex work of genius and the fruit of forty years of thought and investigation. Newton devoted various periods of experimentation to this final expression of his life's work and drew on the results of successive interactions with other scientists
and thinkers. This introduction to his book disentangles the different layers of Newton's thought processes in terms of his contemporary influences, and details the development of the final text. It explains problems that arose from Newton's changing ideas during the course of the book's long
preparation, touching on such controversial issues of the time as the concepts of atomism, force, and the aether. The author also looks in detail at the way Newton has been interpreted both at home and abroad. This readable, non-mathematical book serves as an excellent introduction to Newton and
the great achievement of Opticks and will fascinate students and general readers interested in natural philosophy and the history of science.

264 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 1993

Reviews

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read that summed up Newton's Opticks, put it into historical context and reviewed the responses it generated from the scientific community. The writing style was very informative, but not too technical and would be understandable to anyone who isn't blind.

I would highly recommend this book to schoolteachers - the experiments presented by Newton would be quite easy to recreate in a classroom and would provide far better understanding of the nature of light than the typical lesson involving a prism.

Having recently read "Newton and the counterfeiter", I am surprised at how different a portrait this book paints of Newton and the man impresses me more every time I read a book about him.