1987 Isaac Newton set
This striking and colourful set, designed
by Sarah Godwin, was issued in March 1987 to commemorate the
300th anniversary of Isaac Newton’s monumental work Principia (full title:
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica, or Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy), generally regarded as
the greatest scientific book ever written. In it, Newton laid
out his findings on gravity and motion that underpin our
understanding of the Universe.
The title page of the Principia is shown on
the 18p stamp, with a diagram from it overlain on a picture of
an apple, the stimulus for his research into the attraction of
bodies. Newton’s laws of gravity explained why the
planets move around the Sun in elliptical orbits, as
illustrated on the 22p stamp.
Newton also did pioneering work on light
and colour, as recalled by the 31p stamp which depicts the
title page of his book Opticks (subtitled A Treatise
of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light) seen refracted through a flask of water, along
with a rainbow spectrum.
The 34p stamp shows the title page of The System of the World, originally Book III of the Principia but which was
published separately after Newton’s death. It contained a
famous diagram illustrating how a projectile could go into
orbit around the Earth if propelled with sufficient speed.
Newton could hardly have imagined that one day we would
actually be able to send objects into orbit such as the large
communications satellite shown.
Stanley Gibbons nos. 1351–1354