Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and ApplicationsLuckiesh, Matthew
Science
Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications
Luckiesh, Matthew
Optical illusions
_Marine Camouflage._--At the time of the Spanish-American war, our
battleships were painted white, apparently with little thought of
attaining low visibility. Later the so-called "battleship gray" was
adopted, but it has been apparent to close observers that this gray is in
general too dark. Apparently it is a mixture of black and white. The ships
of the British navy were at one time painted black, but preceding the
Great War their coats were of a warm dark gray. Germany adopted dark gray
before the close of the last century and Austria adopted the German gray
at the outbreak of the war. The French and Italian fleets were also
painted a warm gray. This development toward gray was the result of an aim
toward attaining low visibility. Other changes were necessitated by
submarine warfare which will be discussed later.
In the early days of unrestricted submarine warfare many schemes for
modifying the appearance of vessels were submitted. Many of these were
merely wild fancies with no established reasoning behind them. Here again
science came to the rescue and through research and consultation, finally
straightened out matters. The question of low visibility for vessels could
be thoroughly studied on a laboratory scale, because the seascape and
natural lighting conditions could be reproduced very closely. Even the
general weather conditions could be simulated, although, of course, the
experiments could be prosecuted outdoors with small models, as indeed
they were. Mr. L. A. Jones[10] carried out an investigation on the shore
of Lake Ontario, and laboratory experiments were conducted by others with
the result that much light was shed on the questions of marine camouflage.
This work confirmed the conclusion of the author and others that our
battleship gray was too dark. Of course, the color best adapted is that
which is the best compromise for the extreme variety in lighting and
weather conditions. These vary in different parts of the world, so
naturally those in the war zone were of primary importance. All camouflage
generally must aim to be a compromise best suited for average or
dominating conditions. For example, in foggy weather a certain paint may
render a ship of low visibility, but on a sunny day the ship might be
plainly visible. However, if ships are rendered of low visibility for even
a portion of the time it is obvious that an advantage has been gained.
Cloudiness increases generally from the equator northward, as indicated by
meteorological annals.
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