Vibrational theories of light in 18th century Great Britain

Abstract

In this article, I present a study about the vibrational theories of light that were elaborated in the 18th century. It is well known that Newton’s ideas were dominant in this century. They had impact not only on the development of natural philosophy, but also they spread through other areas of knowledge. In optics, in particular, the corpuscular conception, based on Newton’s Opticks, published in 1704, was predominant. However, there were dissidents. Throughout the 18th century, some natural philosophers criticized the corpuscular conception and aimed to build alternative models, based on vibrational theories for light. I aim to elucidate the chief aspects of these theories, as well as discuss why there was not significant uptake of them