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
But before we set them down, it will not perhaps appear impertinent to
premise;
That there seems to be a manifest Disparity betwixt Red Liquors, so that
some of them may be said to have a Genuine Redness in comparison of others,
that have a Yellowish Redness: For if you take (for example) a good
Tincture of _Chochineel_, dilute it never so much with fair Water, you will
not (as far as I can judge by what I have tried) be able to make it a
Yellow Liquor. Insomuch that a Single drop of a rich Solution of
_Cochineel_ in Spirit of Urine, being Diluted with above an Ounce of fair
Water, exhibited no Yellowishness at all, but a fair (though somewhat
faint) Pinck or Carnation; and even when _Cochineel_ was by degrees Diluted
much beyond the newly mention'd Colour, by the way formerly related to you
in the twenty fourth Experiment, I remember not, that there appear'd in the
whole Trial any Yellow. But if you take Balsom of Sulphur (for Instance)
though it may appear in a Glass, where it has a good Thickness, to be of a
deep Red, yet if you shake the Glass, or pour a few drops on a sheet of
White Paper, spreading them on it with your Finger, the Balsom that falls
back along the sides of the Glass, and that which stains the Paper, will
appear Yellow, not Red. And there are divers Tinctures, such as that of
Amber made with Spirit of Wine, (to name now no more) that will appear
either Yellow or Red, according as the Vessels that they fill, are Slender
or Broad.
_EXPERIMENT XXXIII._
But to proceed to the Experiments I was about to deliver; _First_; Oyl or
Spirit of Turpentine, though clear as fair Water, being Digested upon the
purely White Sugar of Lead, has, in a short time, afforded us a high Red
Tincture, that some Artists are pleas'd to call the Balsom of _Saturn_,
which they very much (and probably not altogether without cause) extoll as
an excellent Medicine in divers Outward affections.
_EXPERIMENT XXXIV._
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