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Isaac Newton's Birthday
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
~ Isaac Newton, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton: Volume 5, 1709–1713
Happy Birthday, Isaac Newton, born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. This remarkable tartan weaves history and discovery into its very fabric, embedding fascinating facts and dates within its sett. Designed to honor Sir Isaac Newton—an English polymath celebrated as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author—this tartan pays tribute to one of the most influential figures of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
The inspiration behind the tartan's asymmetrical pattern is Newton’s groundbreaking 1704 work, Opticks. Its thread counts—arranged in widths of 17, 4, 12, 6, 6, 12, 4, and 17—create a stunning geometric, prismatic effect when viewed at a 45-degree angle. This ingenious design echoes Newton's iconic experiments with prisms and light.
Historical reverence is woven into the tartan with thread counts of ‘84,’ representing Newton's age at his passing, and ‘1704,’ marking the publication year of Opticks. Adding to the design’s brilliance, seven monochromatic pinstripes symbolize the spectrum of light waves contained within white light, a nod to Newton’s revolutionary discoveries.
Excitingly, future color variations of this tartan are already being envisioned by the designer, extending this luminous tribute to Newton’s legacy. 🖤 🤍 🍎 ⚡ ⚛️
This tartan was designed by Steven Patrick Sim. See more of his work at The Tartan Artisan.
Isaac Newton was the greatest English mathematician of his generation. He laid the foundation for differential and integral calculus. His work on optics and gravitation make him one of the greatest scientists the world has known.
Opticks is a book by English natural philosopher Isaac Newton that was published in English in 1704. (A scholarly Latin translation appeared in 1706.) The book analyses the fundamental nature of light by means of the refraction of light with prisms and lenses, the diffraction of light by closely spaced sheets of glass, and the behavior of color mixtures with spectral lights or pigment powders. It is considered one of the great works of science in history. Opticks was Newton’s second major book on physical science.
For more on Isaac Newton, click the 1874 illustration of Newton using a prism to separate white light into the colours of the spectrum, watched by his Cambridge University room mate John Wickins.