High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The history of spectroscopy began with Isaac Newton`s optics experiments (1666-1672). Newton applied the word "spectrum" to describe the rainbow of colors that combine to form white light and that are revealed when the white light is passed through a prism. During the early 1800s, Joseph von Fraunhofer made experimental advances with dispersive spectrometers that enabled spectroscopy to become a more precise and quantitative scientific technique. Since then, spectroscopy has played—and continues to play—a significant role in chemistry, physics and astronomy.