Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)Boyle, Robert
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Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)
Boyle, Robert
Color -- Early works to 1800; Colors -- Early works to 1800
And (as I formerly Noted) that Red and Blew compound a Purple, so I could
produce this last nam'd Colour, by casting at some Distance from the Glass
the Blew part of the Prismatical Iris (as I think it may be call'd for
Distinction sake) upon a Lively Red, (for else the Experiment succeeds not
so well.) And I remember, that sometimes when I try'd this upon a piece of
Red Cloath, _that_ part of the Iris which would have been Blew, (as I try'd
by covering that part of the Cloath with a piece of White Paper) and
Compounded with the Red, wherewith the Cloath was Imbued before, appear'd
of a fair Purple, did, when I came to View it near at hand, look very Odly,
as if there were some strange Reflection or Refraction or both made in the
Hairs of which that Cloath was composed.
Calling likewise the Prismatical Iris upon a very Vivid Blew, I found that
part of it, which would else have been the Yellow, appear Green. (Another
somewhat differing Tryal, and yet fit to confirm this, you will find in the
fifteenth Experiment.)
But it may seem somewhat more strange, that though the Prismatical Iris
being made by the Refraction of Light through a Body that has no Colour at
all, must according to the Doctrine of the Schools consist of as purely
Emphatical Colours, as may be, yet even these may be Compounded with one
another, as well as Real Colours in the Grossest Pigments. For I took at
once two Triangular Glasses, and one of them being kept fixt in the same
Posture, that the Iris it projected on the Floor might not Waver, I cast on
the same Floor another Iris with the other Prism, and Moving it too and fro
to bring what part of the second Iris I pleas'd, to fall upon what part of
the first I thought fit, we did sometimes (for a small Errour suffices to
hinder the Success) obtain by this means a Green Colour in that part of the
more Stable Iris, that before was Yellow, or Blew, and frequently by
casting those Beams that in one of the Iris's made the Blew upon the Red
parts of the other Iris, we were able to produce a lovely Purple, which we
can Destroy or Recompose at pleasure, by Severing and Reapproaching the
Edges of the two Iris's.
_EXPERIMENT XV._
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