Abstract

Optics is a venerable and important branch of science. Because nearly all the readers of this journal use it in their professional work, and because everyone uses applied optics in daily life, a short history of the subject may be of interest. It will be illustrated by postage stamps; they provide a colorful and fairly complete coverage of the subject. This article follows the format of two similar papers that have appeared in this journal: a postage stamp history of spectroscopy and a postage stamp history of chemistry. The discussion here is chronological except for the placement of physiological optics near the end. Very little will be said about the nature of light, and spectroscopy and electron optics will be omitted entirely. All the stamps are identified in Table I.

Optics from Euclid to Huygens

Max Herzberger
Appl. Opt. 5(9) 1383-1393 (1966)

Random Reflections on the History of Atmospheric Optics

W. E. Knowles Middleton
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50(2) 97-100 (1960)

Atmospheric refraction: a history

Waldemar H. Lehn and Siebren van der Werf
Appl. Opt. 44(27) 5624-5636 (2005)

History of Optics at Itek

F. Dow Smith
Appl. Opt. 11(12) 2729-2738 (1972)

The Early History of Optics at the National Bureau of Standards

Irvine C. Gardner
Appl. Opt. 6(1) 1-8 (1967)