Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)Boyle, Robert
History
Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)
Boyle, Robert
Color -- Early works to 1800; Colors -- Early works to 1800
other Bodies, whose Fumes, when they fill a Receiver, would make one
suspect it contains Milk, and yet when these Fumes settle into a Liquor,
that Liquor is not White, but Transparent; And such White Fumes I have seen
afforded by unstopping a Liquor I know, which yet is it self Diaphanous and
Red; Nor are these the only Instances of this Kind, that our Tryals can
supply us with. And if the Superficial Corpuscles be of the Grosser sort,
and be so Framed, that their differing Sides or Faces may exhibit differing
Colours, then the Motion or Rest of those Corpuscles may be considerable,
as to the Colour of the Superficies they compose, upon this account, that
sometimes more, sometimes fewer of the Sides dispos'd to exhibit such a
Colour may by this means become or continue more Obverted to the Eye than
the rest, and compose a Physical Surface, that will be more or less
sensibly interrupted; As, to explane my meaning, by proposing a gross
Example, I remember, that in some sorts of Leavy Plants thick set by one
another, the two sides of whose Leaves were of somewhat differing Colours,
there would be a notable Disparity as to Colour, if you look'd upon them
both when the Leaves being at Rest had their upper and commonly expos'd
sides Obverted to the Eye, and when a breath of Wind passing thorow them,
made great Numbers of the usually Hidden sides of the Leaves become
conspicuous. And though the Little Bodies, we were lately speaking of, may
Singly and Apart seem almost Colourless, yet when Many of them are plac'd
by one another, so near, that the Eye does not easily discern an
Interruption, within a sensible space, they may exhibit a Colour; as we
see, that though a Slenderest Thrid of Dy'd Silk do's, whilst look'd on
Single, seem almost quite Devoyd of Redness, (for instance) yet when
numbers of these Thrids are brought together into one Skein, their Colour
becomes notorious.
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