1-157-042 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Plate showing diagram of the optics of a reflecting telescope (Fig 29), 1704. English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton (1642-1727) first separated white light into the colours of the spectrum by using a prism in 1666. His theories regarding optics and the nature of light, set out in Opticks, led to him building the first reflecting telescope. Newton's discoveries were prolific and exerted a huge influence on science and thought. From Opticks by Isaac Newton. (London, 1704).