"Thomas Young... attained equal eminence by his discoveries in connection with the undulatory theory of light, in which he was the first to assert the principle of interference, and that of transverse vibrations... The remarkable fact that Young, of whom Helmholtz says that he came a generation too soon, remained scientifically unrecognised and popularly almost unknown to his countrymen, has been explained by his unfortunate manner of expression and the peculiar channels through which his labours were announced to the world. ...[S]everal great names contributed, by the authority they commanded, to oppose Young's claims to originality and renown. Lord Brougham, shielded by the powerful anonymity of the ',' and ostentatiously parading the authority of Newton, submitted the views of Young to a ruthless and unfair criticism, the popular influence of which Young probably never overcame. The great authority on optics, Brewster, who has enriched that science by such a number of experiments and observations of the first importance, never really adopted the theories of Young and Fresnel."
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, A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1896) Vol. 1, footnote, p. 244.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_optics
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History of optics
begins with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek philosophers, and the development of in the Greco-Roman world. The word optics is derived from the Greek term τα ὀπτικά meaning "appearance or look". Optics was significantly reformed by the developments in the medieval Islamic world, such as the beginnings of physical and physiological optics, and then significantly advanced in early modern Europe
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