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
It may seem somewhat strange, that if you take the Crimson Solution of
_Cochineel_, or the Juice of Black Cherries, and of some other Vegetables
that afford the like Colour, (which because many take but for a deep Red,
we do with them sometimes call it so) and let some of it fall upon a piece
of Paper, a drop or two of an Acid Spirit, such as Spirit of Salt, or
_Aqua-fortis_, will immediately turn it into a fair Red. Whereas if you
make an Infusion of Brazil in fair Water, and drop a little Spirit of Salt
or _Aqua-fortis_ into it, that will destroy its Redness, and leave the
Liquor of a Yellow, (sometimes Pale) I might perhaps plausibly enough say
on this occasion, that if we consider the case a little more attentively,
we may take notice, that the action of the Acid Spirit seems in both cases,
but to weaken the Colour of the Liquor on which it falls. And so though it
destroy Redness in the Tincture of Brazil, as well as produce Red in the
Tincture of _Chochineel_, its Operations may be Uniform enough, since as
Crimson seems to be little else than a very deep Red, with (perhaps) an Eye
of Blew, so some kinds of Red seem (as I have lately noted) to be little
else than heightned Yellow. And consequently in such Bodies, the Yellow
seems to be but a diluted Red. And accordingly Alcalizate Solutions and
Urinous Spirits, which seem dispos'd to Deepen the Colours of the Juices
and Liquors of most Vegetables, will not only restore the Solution of
_Cochineel_ and the Infusion of Brazil to the Crimson, whence the Spirit of
Salt had chang'd them into a truer Red; but will also (as I lately told
you) not only heighthen the Yellow Juice of Madder into Red, but advance
the Red Infusion of Brazil to a Crimson. But I know not whether it will not
be much safer to derive these Changes from vary'd Textures, than certain
kinds of Bodies; and you will perhaps think it worth while, that I should
add on this occasion, That it may deserve some Speculation, why,
notwithstanding what we have been observing, though Blew and Purple seem to
be deeper Colours than Red, and therefore the Juices of Plants of either of
the two former Colours may (congruously enough to what has been just now
noted) be turn'd Red by Spirit of Salt or _Aqua-fortis_, yet Blew Syrrup of
Violets and some Purples should both by Oyl of Tartar and Spirit of Urine
be chang'd into Green, which seems to be not a deeper but a more diluted
Colour than Blew, if not also than Purple.
_EXPERIMENT XXXVIII._
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