Colour Measurement and MixtureAbney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Science
Colour Measurement and Mixture
Abney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Color
We are thus able to secure two square white patches upon the screen F,
one from the re-combination of the spectrum, and one from the reflected
beam. If a rod be placed in the path of these two beams when they are
superposed, each beam will throw a shadow of the rod upon the screen.
The shadow cast by the integrated spectrum will be illuminated by the
reflected beam, and the shadow cast by the latter will be illuminated by
the former. In fact we have an ordinary Rumford photometer, and the two
shadows may be caused to touch one another by moving the rod towards or
from the screen. When the illumination of the two shadows by the white
light is equal, the whole should appear as _one_ unbroken gray patch. To
prevent confusion to the eye a black mask is placed on the screen F with
a square aperture cut out of it, on which the two shadows are caused to
fall. If it be desired to diminish the brightness of either patch, it
can be accomplished by the introduction of rotating sectors M, which can
be opened and closed at pleasure during rotation, in the path of one or
other of the beams.
Fig. 7.--Rotating Sectors.
The annexed figure (Fig. 7) is a bird's-eye view of the instrument. A A
are two sectors, one of which is capable of closing the open aperture by
means of a lever arrangement C, which moves a sleeve in which is fixed a
pin working in a screw groove, which allows the aperture in the sectors
to be opened and closed at pleasure during their revolution; D is an
electro-motor causing the sectors to rotate. To show its efficiency, if
two strips of paper, one coated with lamp-black and the other white, are
placed side by side on the screen, and if one shadow from the rod falls
on the white strip, and the other shadow on the black strip of paper,
and the rotating sectors are interposed in the path of the light
illuminating the shadow cast on the white strip, the aperture of the
sectors can be closed till the white paper appears absolutely blacker
than the black paper. White thus becomes darker than lamp-black, owing
to the want of illumination. This is an interesting experiment, and we
shall see its bearings as we proceed, as it indicates that even
lamp-black reflects a certain amount of white or other light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account