Trichromatic theories before young

Abstract Trichromatic theory is connected today with the names of Young and Helmholtz. But in the century before Young it had already become a widespread and intensely discussed issue in color science. This article shows (a) that trichromatic theories were so successful because their validity was strikingly demonstrated by the new technique of three‐color printing, (b) that trichromacy was believed to be a property of light and therefore seemed to contradict Newton's theory, (c) that the assumptions made to reconcile both theories remained unsuccessful, and (d) that Young's interpretation of trichromacy as being a consequence of the structure of our visual system was so inconvenient to contemporary scientific thought that another 50 years had to pass before it was accepted.