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
8. Fifthly, And to shew that the Beams that fall on Black Bodies, as they
do not Rebound Outwards to the Eye, so they are Reflected towards the Body
it self, as the Nature of those Erected Particles to which we have imputed
Blackness, requires, we will add an Experiment that will also confirm our
Doctrine touching Whiteness; Namely, that we took a Broad and Large Tile,
and having Whitened over one half of the Superficies of it, and Black'd the
other, we expos'd it to the Summer Sun; And having let it lye there a
convenient time (for the Difference is more Apparent, if it have not lain
there too long) we found, as we expected, that whilst the Whited part of
the Tile remained Cool enough, the Black'd part of the same Tile was grown
not only Sensible, but very Hot, (sometimes to a strong Degree.) And to
satisfie some of our Friends the more, we have sometimes left upon the
Surface of the Tile, besides the White and Black parts thereof, a part that
Retain'd the native Red of the Tile it self, and Exposing them to the Sun,
we observ'd this Last mention'd to have Contracted a Heat in comparison of
the White, but a Heat Inferiour to that of the Black, of which the Reason
seems to be, that the Superficial Particles of Black Bodies, being, as we
said, more Erected, than those of White or Red ones, the Corpuscles of
Light falling on their sides, being for the most part Reflected Inwards
from one Particle to another, and thereby engag'd as it were and kept from
Rebounding Upwards, they communicate their brisk Motion, wherewith they
were impell'd against the Black Body, (upon whose account had they fallen
upon a White Body, they would have been Reflected Outwards) to the Small
parts of the Black Body, and thereby Produce in those Small parts such an
Agitation, as (when we feel it) we are wont to call Heat. I have been
lately inform'd, that an Observation near of Kin to Ours, has been made by
some Learned Men in _France_ and _Italy_, by long Exposing to a very Hot
Sun, two pieces of Marble, the one White, the other Black; But though the
Observation be worthy of them, and may confirm the same Truth with Our
Experiment, yet besides that our Tryal needs not the Summer, nor any Great
Heat to succeed, It seems to have this Advantage above the other, that
whereas Bodies more Solid, and of a Closer Texture, though they use to be
more Slowly Heated, are wont to receive a Greater Degree of Heat from the
Sun or Fire, than (_Cæteris paribus_) Bodies of a Slightest Texture; I have
found by the Information of Stone-cutters, and by other ways of Enquiry,
that Black Marble is much Solider and Harder than White, so that possibly
the Difference betwixt the Degrees of Heat they receive from the Sunbeams
will by many be ascrib'd to the Difference of their Texture, rather than to
that of their Colour, though I think our Experiment will make it Probable
enough that the greater part of that Difference may well be ascrib'd to
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