Colour vision : $b Being the Tyndall Lectures delivered in 1894 at the Royal InstitutionAbney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Science
Colour vision : $b Being the Tyndall Lectures delivered in 1894 at the Royal Institution
Abney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Color vision
These numbers are remarkable, and we may enforce what they mean in
this way. The energy of radiation, and of light also when of ordinary
luminosity, varies inversely as the square of the distance from an
incandescent body when of small dimensions. But from the above it seems
that a white screen receiving the rays from an amyl-acetate lamp in an
otherwise perfectly dark place, and having a colour which stimulates
the red sensation alone, would be invisible at 58 feet distance, for
there would not be enough energy transmitted to stimulate the red
perceiving apparatus sufficiently to give the sensation of light. If
it were an orange light, such as sodium, of the same luminosity, we
should have to move it from the screen 142 feet before the same result
was attained. With the green light at E, the distance would be 550
feet, and with the violet the distance would be increased to 1000 feet.
The reduction in intensity of white light, which, when of ordinary
brightness, is warm, would make it colder, for the red would disappear,
and finally the residue of light, just before extinction, would become
a cold grey, due to the absence of all colour. The changes in hue that
would occur are variable, the variation being due to the loss of colour
of the different rays for different amounts of reduction, and then
their final extinction. We can place two patches of white light on the
screen, and gradually reduce one in intensity, keeping the other of its
original value. No one would expect that the two would be dissimilar
in hue, as they appear to be when the former is moderately near the
extinction value. If we wish to see this perfectly, we should use an
extinction box and view it away from the surroundings, which must be
more or less slightly illuminated.
It has already been stated that the persistency curve for persons who
have normal colour vision is closely the same as that recorded for
those who are of the monochromatic type. As this is so, we must expect
to find that the persistency curve of these last is the same as their
luminosity curve. We put this to the test of experiment and found that
our reasoning was correct, for the persistency curve could be almost
exactly fitted to it. (See table, pages 217 and 222.) The slight
difference between them can be credited to the fact that the whole eye
may have been brought into use during the extinction observations, the
centre of the eye not being exclusively used. The Figure 31 shows
both the extinction and the persistency curves, and also the curve of
luminosity for the normal eye.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.]
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