The foundation of the scientific research of colored light was laid by Sir Isaac Newton. In his paper of 1672, A New Theory of Color and Light, he described his model of the colored
spectrum of white light.
This model crystallized after a series of experiments in which Newton passed a
beam
of light through a prism placed in a white-walled room impenetrable to any other light. The
beam
of light separated into seven colors in a fixed order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Each color merged with the adjoining colors, together forming a continuous
spectrum
identical to that of a rainbow.
In order to prove that a
beam
of white of light is indeed composed of light of these different wavelengths, Newton used a
lens
to collect the seven colors, and a
beam
of
white light
emerged.
Newton named these seven colors
primary colors
and devised a
color wheel
showing the relationship between the different hues. The
color wheel was created by joining the two ends of the spectrum; the center of the wheel was white, the sum of all the colors .
