"We hear no more from Young about his theory of colors until 1807, when he published the first volume of his celebrated work, "A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts." ...Young gives a concise statement of his views on the analysis of the sensations of color and supports these views with conclusive experiments with rotating colored discs; but, strange to say, he omits from this account... all mention of the physiological explanation of it which he gave in the Bakerian Lecture of 1801. ... [I]n the Natural Philosophy we read that, "The sensations of various kinds of light may also be combined in a still more satisfactory manner by painting the surface of a circle with different colours... and causing it to revolve with such rapidity, that the whole may assume the appearance of a single tint, or of a combination of tints, resulting from the mixture of the colours." These experiments were evidently first made by Young; and are fully described in the text and perfectly illustrated... in the plates of Youngs work. These experiments have been carefully repeated by Helmholtz, Maxwell, and others, and of their general accuracy there is no doubt. We can readily imagine the delight with which Young must have viewed these beautiful experiments, which, however, together with other truths unfolded by him, were destined to remain unnoticed, "until a later generation, by slow degrees, arrived at the discovery of his discovery."
Thomas Young was a British polymath who made notable contributions to the fields of vision, light, solid mechanics, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony, and Egyptology. He was instrumental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the Rosetta Stone.
"A permanent alteration of form limits the strength of materials with regard to practical purposes, almost as much as fracture; since, in general, the force which is capable of producing this effect is sufficient, with a small addition, to increase it till fracture takes place."
"This statement appears to us to be conclusive with respect to the insufficiency of the undulatory theory, in its present state, for explaining all the phenomena of light. But we are not therefore by any means persuaded of the perfect sufficiency of the projectile system: and all the satisfaction that we have derived from an attentive consideration of the accumulated evidence, which has been brought forward, within the last ten years, on both sides of the question, is that of being convinced that much more evidence is still wanting before it can be positively decided. In the progress of scientific investigation, we must frequently travel by rugged paths, and through valleys as well as over mountains. Doubt must necessarily succeed often to apparent certainty, and must again give place to a certainty of a higher order; such is the imperfection of our faculties, that the descent from conviction to hesitation is not uncommonly as salutary, as the more agreeable elevation from uncertainty to demonstration. An example of such alternations may easily be adduced from the history of chemistry. How universally had phlogiston once expelled the aërial acid of Hooke and Mayow. How much more completely had phlogiston given way to oxygen! And how much have some of our best chemists been lately inclined to restore the same phlogiston to its lost honours! although now again they are beginning to apprehend that they have already done too much in its favour. In the mean time, the true science of chemistry, as the most positive dogmatist will not hesitate to allow, has been very rapidly advancing towards ultimate perfection."
"When I was a boy, I thought myself a man. Now that I am a man, I find myself a boy."
"It may hereafter be considered how far the excellent experiments of Count Rumford, which tend very greatly to weaken the evidence of the modern doctrine of heat, may be more or less favourable to one or the other system of light and colours."
"The well known elevation of the pitch of wind instruments, in the course of playing, sometimes amounting to half a note, is not, as is commonly supposed, owing to any expansion of the instrument, for this should produce a contrary effect, but to the increased warmth of the air in the tube."
"Physic is one of those departments, in which there is frequent necessity for the exercise of an incommunicable faculty of judgment, and a sagacity, which may be called transcendental, as extending beyond the simple combination of all that can be taught by precept. Nor is there any other mode of cultivating these powers, than by pursuing a much more extensive range of elementary study, than appears, to a common and superficial observer, to be in any way connected with the immediate objects of the profession."