David Brewster

Sir David Brewster was a British scientist, inventor, author and academic administrator, born on 11 December 1781, who is remembered chiefly for his experimental work in physical optics. He studied the polarization of light and discovered Brewster's angle, and he studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, creating the field of optical mineralogy. William Whewell called him the father of modern experimental optics. He was a pioneer of photography and invented the kaleidoscope, an improved lenticular stereoscope that became the first portable 3D viewing device, the stereoscopic camera, two types of polarimeter, the polyzonal lens and a lighthouse illuminator. As a historian of science he wrote a detailed biography of Isaac Newton in 1831 and was the first scholar to examine many of Newton's papers. He was one of the founders of the British Science Association and its president in 1849.