Pigments, Paint and Painting: A practical book for practical men — John Shaqi
Pigments, Paint and Painting: A practical book for practical menTerry, George
Science
Pigments, Paint and Painting: A practical book for practical men
Terry, George
Paint; Painting, Industrial; Pigments
For instance, take the action of heat upon a solution of chloride of
cobalt. As soon as the liquid becomes warm, the pink colour disappears
and gives place to blue; but on pouring water into it, the blue
vanishes and the pink reappears. Again, on heating the blue crystals
of sulphate of copper they become white, but the blue colour comes
back when water is added, and the solution assumes a deeper tint as it
dissolves more of the white powder.
If all the rays are cut off from an electric light except those which
are in and beyond the violet, and a flask containing a solution
of sulphate of quinine is held in that portion of the spectrum, it
will become luminous. The same thing will occur even more strikingly
on placing a piece of uranium glass in the ultra-violet rays. The
explanation of this phenomenon is that beyond those rays which give
light there are others which do not give light, i. e. which do not
cause us to experience the sensation of light; the reason being that
their vibrations are too rapid. But when certain other substances, such
as sulphate of quinine, or a thin slip of uranium glass, are placed in
the path of the rays, this rapid motion is arrested and modified, and
these rays, which in themselves are not luminous, are reflected back
to our eyes as luminous rays. The rapidity of the vibrations being
moderated, our retinas become sensible to them as rays of blue light.
Colour does not depend only upon chemical composition nor solely upon
the aggregation of the particles, but upon these and other things
besides not yet explained. All matter is in a state of motion. If
you heat a substance you communicate an increased activity of motion
to the particles of which it consists. When certain coloured rays of
light are falling upon a substance, these coloured rays of light have
a motion peculiar to themselves. It may be that the degree of motion
in that substance, either existing in it naturally without heating,
or communicated to it by artificial heating, is such that these rays
of light are precisely those which that substance is not capable of
sending back to our eyes. They are then absorbed or destroyed in some
way, by the particular state of that substance upon which they fall;
and those rays which the substance is capable of reflecting back are
mainly sent back to our eyes. Certain colours, such as blue, yellow,
and green, absorb certain rays more or less perfectly, and reflect back
in the main blue, yellow, and green to our eyes. Hence it is incumbent
on those who are studying colour, and who are interested in the purity
and permanency of colour, to comprehend at least the principles of
that science of light which tells of the action of light upon various
bodies that are used as pigments in painting.
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