Lenses and Waves

222 CHAPTER 6
The publication of Traité de la Lumière
Why did Huygens not publish his dioptrics himself, given the quite
publishable state he left it in? 44 After the unceasing postponements of the
previous decades, with none of his plans – beginning with that of 1652 –
completely executed, it does not really come as a surprize he did not finish
‘De Ordine’. Still, this leaves the question why he never went public with his
dear dioptrics. Huygens’ general tardiness of publishing is often pointed out,
suggesting some psychological factor for failing to publis his important
discoveries and inventions. However, there may well be cultural factors in
play as well. I will not elaborate this, except for advancing some questions.
Most important, in my view, is reversing the question that opened this
paragraph. Rather than asking why Huygens did not publish what from our
modern point of view was well worth publishing, we should ask why he
published what he did? What credit could a savant like Huygens have gained
by publishing? To answer questions like this, his social position needs to be
taken into account. Was an ‘aristocrat’ like Huygens in the position to
publish whatever he liked at the moment that suited him, or did he need to
observe specific forms? Were books and articles the obvious means for
disseminate one’s ideas, or would someone like him prefer letters to wellchosen
peers? In order to explain Huygens’ tardiness in publishing Dioptrica
(and other texts), his publication pattern ought to be surveyed. This would
account for the swiftness he published his early mathematical works with
around 1650, as well as the haste with which he usually applied for patents.
So, we let the question why Huygens did not publish his dioptrics rest and
turn to the more important question why, in the end, he did publish the first
part of his ‘Dioptrique’, the wave theory and his explanation of strange
refraction.
A direct incentive to publish Traité de la Lumière may have been plans at
the Académie to publish papers of its (former) members. 45 On 8 September
1686 Huygens received a letter from De la Hire asking his permission to
publish some of his manuscripts kept in Paris. 46 Huygens did not hesitate to
list some interesting treatises, but at first no mention was made of his theory
of light. 47 In his letter of 20 April 1687 De la Hire started to inquire about the
state of affairs concerning Huygens’ treatise of dioptrics. 48 Huygens answered
that it was almost ready; at least the part on “… physics, Iceland crystal
etc.”. 49 The following letter makes it clear that Huygens’ explanation of
strange refraction was well remembered in Paris but also that it was not fully
44
Yoder, “Archives”, 91-92.
45
Divers Ouvrages de Mathématique et de Physique. Par Messieurs de l’Academie Royale des Sciences was published in
1693, containing eight papers by Huygens.
46
OC9, 91.
47
OC9, 95-95.
48
OC9, 129.
49
OC9, 133. “… la Physique, le Cristal d’Islande &c.”