Colour Measurement and MixtureAbney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Science
Colour Measurement and Mixture
Abney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Color
We can also brush a solution of quinine on the screen, and immediately
the place where the ultra-violet rays fall is illuminated by a violet
light. We do not see the ultra-violet rays themselves, but only the rays
of increased wave-length, which are emitted by their effect on the
sulphate of quinine. Common machine oil as used for engines also emits
greenish rays when excited by the ultra-violet rays, and a very
beautiful colour it is. Fluorescence then is one means of demonstrating
the existence of the ultra-violet rays--or Ritter's rays as they were
formerly called, after their discoverer--in a very simple manner. The
method of rendering the effects of the infra-red rays visible to the eye
is also interesting. All, or at all events most, of our readers have
seen Balmain's luminous paint. A glass or card coated with this
substance, which is essentially a sulphide of calcium, when exposed to
the light of the sun, or of the electric arc, and then taken into
comparative darkness, is seen to shine with a peculiar violet-coloured
light. If when thus excited we place it in a bright spectrum for some
little time, we shall find on shutting off the light that where the
ultra-violet and blue fell on it, the violet light is intenser than the
light of the main part of the screen; where the yellow fell there is
neither increase or diminution in brightness; but that in the red it
becomes darker, and also beyond the limit of the visible spectrum,
indicating the existence of rays beyond, which through their greater
length have not the power of affecting the eye. If the spectrum be shut
off, however, very soon after it falls on the plate, it has been
asserted that the red and infra-red rays have increased the brightness
of that particular part of the plate on which they fell. At first these
two observations seem to contradict one another; they do not in reality.
We may expose a tablet of Balmain's paint to light, and place a heated
iron in contact with the back of the plate; we shall then find that the
iron produces a bright image of its surface on a less bright background.
This bright image will gradually fade away, and the same space will
eventually become dark compared with the rest of the plate. The reason
of this is clear. When light excites the paint a certain amount of
energy is poured into it, which it radiates out slowly as light. When
the hot iron is placed in contact with it, the heat causes the light to
radiate more rapidly, and consequently with greater intensity, at the
part where its surface touches, and the energy of that particular
portion becomes used up. When the energy of radiation of this part
becomes less than that of the rest of the tablet, its light must of
necessity be of less brightness than that of the background, with which
the heated iron has had no contact. For this reason the image of the
iron subsequently appears dark. We shall see presently, and as before
stated, that the principal heating effect of the spectrum lies in the
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