In science, Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English physicist noted for his 1686 The Principia, in which the theory of universal gravitation, three laws of motion, and the concept of "force" were put forward, and the 1704 Opticks, a latter edition of which (1718) led to the start of the chemical revolution, in particular the description of chemical force and affinity tendencies in the famous “Query 31”.

Query 31
Newton, who conceived of molecules as being structures of atoms attached together by a chemical force of affinity. He outlined his atomic chemical force affinity bonding theory in the ‘Queries’ section to his Opticks. To cite one example of Newton’s description of a gradient of affinity reactions, he states ‘and is it not for want of an attractive virtue between the parts of water and oil, of quick-silver (Hg) and antimony (Sb), of lead (Pb) and iron (Fe), that these substances do not mix; and by a weak attraction, that quick-silver and copper (Cu) mix difficultly; and from a strong one, that quicksilver and tin (Sn), antimony and iron, water and salts, mix readily?’. [1]

In 1718, during a translation into French of Newton’s Opticks, French physician and chemist Étienne Geoffroy used Newton’s descriptions of affinity reactions to construct the world’s first affinity table, containing twenty-four reacting species, detailing specifically what affinity reactions would occur between various combinations of reactants. This table seeded the chemical revolution: [2]

References
1. Newton, Isaac. (1704). Opticks (Query 31: On the small particles of bodies); London: Printers to Royal Society. Note: several editions published between 1704 and 1730.
2. Kim, Mi Gyung. (2003). Affinity, That Elusive Dream – A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.