'.
1J\1-rEs\ soc JE-rYCO lo I\ co u rlc 11
NEWS LE TTE·R· N0 . 79
1"
...
.........................................................................................................................................:.......................:..............................................................................................................................................................................
~ews· Letter Committee:·
I; H. Godlove; Editor
.....................................................................................................
General Ani line· & Film Corp.,
Ea~-t:on, Penns!lvania
Fabe,r Birren
I. :H.Godlove
Deane. ·B. Judd
Dorothy NicJ:<:e.~s·on
Dorothy Nickerson, Circulation Manager
Box 155, ~enjamin Franklin Station
Wa'shington 4·, · District of Columbia
For matters of business,
Address
the. Circulation Manager
...........
,,................................,................................
·
Subscription price to non-members:
$4.00 annually ......................................._..................................................................
·
..
····-········"'"''''"''"''""''''"''''''"""'"'"'' ' '' " ' '"''" ' ''"''''"'' "'''"''''''''"'" "'"'''''"''"''''''"'''''"" ' '''"'"'
The next .annual meeting of the Inte r-Society Color Council
will 9onsis~ of a Discus'sion Session of problems under study
by subcommittees of the Council and a Business Session on
MEETING
_
We~riesday , ' March ' 9, 1949, the day prior to the spring meetings
of the Optical Society of America, ei.t" New York ;City in Hotel Pennsylvania. While
there is no Technical'Session planned for this meeting, it is expected that there
vnll.be a full progr~ of contributed papers on color at the OSA meetings to which
all Council dele Gates and · Individual members are invited.
N.EXT
ANNUAL
Nm# I NDIVIDYAL
MEMBERS
We welcome the foll owi ng persons to Individual membership in
the I-S.C.C~ · They we~e elected at ·the October 1'9 meeting of
the Executive . Cammittee~ ·.
· J. Ross BlacY~ord of San Antonio , Texas, interested in color and its use in direct
mail advertising;
.
.
Morton C. Br adl ey, Jr., connected with the Department of Conservation, Fogg Museum
of Art, Cambridg~, Mass 01 whose studies of color in connection with the fine arts
are we ll known to inany of us. He is interested in pr oblems of. co lor terminology,
color standards , correct spacing of the color solid, color harmony , color relations
in nature. ~d in painting, color pr obl ems in the conservation and r estoration of
paintings;
Alan R. Cripe, who worked on the National Homes Corporation color project with Dr.
Balinkin, now with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, interested in problems relating
to planned color h~rmony and color harmony for interiors where various illuminants
are us_ed;
Donald Campbell Corse, of Container Corporation of Ame r ica in Boston, interested in
individual color- tdlerance work, correctness of color matching, development of
specifications f or printing inks and paper st ocks;
Willard P. Greenwood, of the Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company, Boston, active
in the ~aston Color Group, interested in problems of color tolerance and matching
and photographic co l or ·separation;
I-S . C. C. NEWS LETTER .'NO. 79 .
November 1948
2•
Charles w. Fletcher , · of BrookiY:n, New York, an artist wi th Vi sual Methods , I nc • •
inte r ested in the practica l app~ication of color knowl edge ·in commercial art, sales
promotion ru1d sal es training programs, and in parti cul a r the design of a combination color- tree -reference book for use in. ed,ucationf?.l work.
The f irst meeti ng of the sixteenth season of the Washington
and Baltimore Colorists was a dinner meeting he l d at 6 :30 on
Octobe'r 25 "at the Y.W . C.A. in Washington, Chairman Bittinger
p r esiding: ..Guests p resent from other color groups included
Dr. T. Vic~<e rstaff of the (British) ' Physical Society Color Group and Mr. Guy Brink
of thEl California Color Society . Dr . K. s. Gibson, Chairman of the r.. c. I. Secretariat Committee on Co l or and Ar tificial Daylight was p re sent ; and Dr. D·, B. Judd,
who attended t he I. C. I. Paris conference this summe r, reported briefly on this
meeting.
LOCAL
COLORI STS
MEET
The subj~ct i'~r the even'ing 1 ~ (iisc4ss~.on was the selection of color and materials
in the design of a hospital.' Mr. · Brink' discussed the· plaiming done under· his direction for the rece nt ly remodeled wing of the Pasadena Memorial Hospital ; and Mr.
Waldron Faul-kner, member of the Washington gr oup , described t he color planni ng for
the recently. comp leted George Washi pgton University .Hospital· in Wash incton , fo r
which his firm, Fo.ulkner and Kingsbu r y, we re the arc"hi tects •· Because the meeting
was a small one, t he r e was more discus.sion than usual . A.'!long those p resent were
two members of the color-planning unit for hospita ls of the Veterans Administration,
also a r ep r usentative of the Food and Drug Administr ation . The discussion ranged ·.
fr om suitable colors for general hospital interiors to those fo r surge ries , ·fo r.··-. . ;.;
towels and shee ts fo r surgeries, and finally .to so- cal l ed " colo r cures ,'.'· as' the
r ecently much publicized Spectrochrome.
'
' ' :
TI1e first day of the Opt~cal Society of America ' s ·r~ll.mee ting,
October 21-23, in Detro~t, Mic~ i gan, included a morni ng "session
devoted to papers on co1or, with an afternoon session in which
the papers were chiefly concerned with problems of color vision.
At the general session on Friday afternoon~ held i~ the Rackham Audit~rium, Mr .
Ralph Evans, fo r me r Chair man of the ISCC, gave the opening lecture , Seeing Light
an.d C<;> ;Lor . This was followed by a pf?.pe r from the McMath Observatory and then the
first . public demonstration of Xer ogr.aphy , newly developeo meth9d of d·~ .I?J;"i'n ting
(for description , see , e . g., Time , Novembe r 1, 1948 , p age 82,-.. which fai1s · to men· ·
.tioh t.hat the first demonstrat ion,. was .oefore }he O.S .A'.) .
COLOR AT OSA
DEI'ROIT
MEETING
During the O.S . A. mee~ings , the re were two well attended sessions, Friday and
Saturday mornings , of the newly formed I. E .S. Color Committee , Dean Farnsworth,
c.hairman .
..-. :;•
COLOUR
GROUP
MEETS
N'otice has been received ~f. a. joint sc~enc·e meeting 10f· the'
Colour a nd Optical Groups' in London at 3 : 30 ·on ·wednesday,
October 13. Five papers we r e listed for the program :
General Phenomena A~socif!:ted wit~ Scattering .of Light, by E . W~: Il~' S.~ lwyn (Kodak
Ltd . ) ;
·:Atmospheric Haze Factors, by W. S. Stiles (Nationa l Phys~cal Laborat ory) ;
..
. .. ':"'•· . --:. ....
The Effect of Haz e on Photography from the Air at Night, ·by G. B·. Harrison ( Ilford,
Ltd.);
t
I- S . C. C. NEWS LETTER NO. 79
3.
Novembe r 1948
Scattering of Light in Pho~ograph ic Mate ri als , by D. T. R. Dighton (Kodak Ltd . ) ; and
The Scatte ring and Abs orpti on of Light i n Col oure d Pape r, by F. North (Imperia l
Chemi cal Industr i es ) .
At 2100 on Monday, Octobe r 25, a meeting was cal l ed by Mr .
Wi l li am D. Appe l, Chi ef of the Textiles Section of t he
National Bureau of Standar ds, t o meet Dr. T. Vicke r staff ,
Chi ef of the Dye ing Re s ear ch Laboratorie s of Tinper ial Chemi ca l I ndustries, Hexagon
House , Bl ackl ey, Manchest er, Engl and, and to hear about r ecent wor k in the latter ' s
l abo r atory. Dr. Vicker staff and hi s co- wor kers have publ i shed many exce llent
studies of the app licati on of dyes to wool, nyl on and othe r fibe r s. They ar e int erested in the fundame ntal s of t he qyeing pr ocess , the mechanism of f ading of dyed
material s and a l l problems of co lor measur ement and color sc i ence general l y . (At
the moment of writi ng the Editor, who remembers wi th much pleasure many of the
pape r s of the Vi ckerstaff group , i s anticipating a visit by Dr. Vickerstaff to his
ovm Laboratory, a nd hopes to report inte r esting gleanings to you later. )
NBS TEXTILES
CONFEREN CE
The second di nner and lecture meeting of this group vras he l d
at the Philadelphia Textile Institute on Tuesday, Octobe r 4 at
8 : 15 P .M. We r egret that at the time of writing we have t he
i nformation only that the speake r was Mr . Geor ge H. Schuler ,
tl~ TecP~ical Laboratory of E. I . DuPont de Nemours & Co. and that his
11
Colorants . 11 But having kno¥m Mr . Schuler for many years as a man of
ability with rare speaking presence and a lways present wit , we ar e sure
of the gr ouP. we r e treated to an alto~ether delectable evening .
PHILADELPH I AWILMI NGTON
COLOR GROUP
Director of
subject was
outst anding
the member s
We regr et that a letter from Dr . W. E. K. Middleton of the
Opt i cs Secti on of the National Research Council or Canada,
dated 27 August at Ottawa, vms accidentally mislaid . In it he
reported that he "amused himself" this past summer by matching the 1248 colors of
the Ploche r e Co l or System with the Munse ll Book of Co l or. He says that "some r ather
inte r esting things emer ged f r om thi s " and that he is prepar in g a paper to be submitted to the C~adian J ou r nal of Research in this connection. We will await the
appear ance of this pape r with much interest (and many thanks, Dr . Middleton. ) A
paper of Dr. Middl et on ' s (wit h A. R. Ramsey) which r e cently appear ed in Canadian J.
Res . 26, 23- 8 (March 1948 ) was entitled, Approximate Measurement of Color Tempe ratur e with a Barri e r-Laye r Photocell ; another recent paper of his , The Measur ement of
Str ongly Reflecting Tr ansmission Samples with the Commercial Recor ding Spectr ophotomete r, appeared i n J , Opt . Soc . Ame r . ~~ 74 Jan. 1948) .
LEI'TER FROM
DR . MIDDL.EI'ON
Juliet Ector Orr Munsell , wife of the late Albert H. Munsell,
di ed quietly at her home in Carmel, Cal ifor ni a , in late August .
Her burial vms on September 1 f r om Christ Church in Brooklyn,
N.Y. , the city in which she was born on April 7, 1865 .
WIDOW OF A. H.
MUNSELL DI ES
Mrs . Munsel l' s contr ibution to the advancement of color lmowl edge was very cons i derable . Next to her devotion to her four children, Alex , E. 0 ., Margaret M., Jul i et D.,
and Elizabeth C., came he r deep and penetratinG interest in the work of her husband
in the notation end measurement of colo r. She fol l ovled closely the development of
the Munsel l sy steJ~, r ead i ng and advising on the manuscr ipt of· A Co l or Notation, and
compi l ing the Index . Togethe r with a group of ar tists , ar t teachers , sc i entists ,
businessmen and plain citizens (inc l uding her eight- year- old son) she served as an
observer on the or iginal Munsell daylight photometer, proving that this i nstrument
· I-S.C.C~
NDVS LETTER NO. 79
.4 .
November 194·8
though simple in design could- be .used .w:i!th t;ood p re·cision even by tnose not·. directly
trained in scientific work. From the be ginning in 1905, but particular l y during the
years ·of. ·standar'di'lat±on and developmertt · (1918- 33), s'he gene r ously supporte·d the ·
continued development and i mprovement of her husband's scientific work. From her
son, A. E. o. Munsell, vre l ear n that onl y l ast Christmas she herseif made t wo copies
of a .20- hue , ·s/-value color char-t, out to /6.. chr-oma, duplicating f r om memory the
first Munsell color chart p·a i nted 44 yeats al!}o by. a ·student u·nde r Mr . Munse ll~ s
·
direction.
We •b elieve it of inte re s t to note that it v:as her lovs· and in-eerest ·in flowe·rs that
l ed her to contribute sufficient .finnncial support in ·the :l"930 ' s to provide for- 40
-instead of '20' hues ·in the Muns e ll Book of. Color. At Ca rmel Hi ghlands she chedshe'd
a beautiful, mu l ti ~:colo red, Calir-o r nia wild- f l owe r garden. I.n identifying the eo l or
of -'certain of these flowers· she found that t0 ha-v-e s amp l e s of. .mo re -than· 2·0 ·hues
wou l d make it easie r to prov ide adequately C'lose Munse ll notations t ·o :Ldel).tif'y. and
distinguish her flowers·. . I nt erpo l ations and e xtrapol ations of notati'ons· on the ·
basis of v i sual cdmpari son to .samples of 40 hues is easier than using only 20· ·hue·s .
I t was this personal interest on the part of a flower love r that makes the 40-hue
booK: availab le to .c.o lor worke r s 'today. It was also her gener.osi ty a nd unders;tanding
th&t l ed to the establishment in 1942 of the Munsell Co l or Foundation, for a't that
time she turned: ·over t.o the IJ:'rustees of t ho F oundation, as a gift in behalf of he r
son; .t.he conunon stock of the Munse ll Color Company, Inc.
Mrs.• Munsell attended. Packar Institute in Br ookl yn, the nearest equivalent to c o!- !
le ge availabl e to her tin 1-885. She deeply l oved mus·ic and s irig ing, an·d pl ayed the .
piano and .c.e llo. She achieved a wor king knowledge of six foreign l-anguages, including Hebrew, Gr eek, Japanese and Russ i an . She sought to put her knowledge to p racti cal u5e as in teachin~ Sunday SchocYl, using scientif ic p rincip les in . plannirig. her
household, and p ersonally supervis·ing a ten-acre war-garden at Carmel.. ~he ·had
travelled iri Europe a!ld paid brief· visits to Japan and Russia . What she saw in
Rus sia .in 1932 res ulted in a· keen and sympathetic interest in what her ·son calls · the
:vital. socio-s·cientific experime nt being carri ed. on . -there. "He adds that, like 'het .
fathe r, a successful and we ll known business man 'in Brookly:n,· she had the keenest·
inte r est in p r ogre ssive po litics, particu l arly i n the period following 193 2; Inde ed,
during her ::10 r e t han 83 years, Mrs . Munse 11 e.nte red v~armly and 'vigorously into 1 ife ,
seeking o.t a ll tiJ!le s to advance human · progre·s s and ·happine·ss •·
·
~
• t
While not many of us in the color field vrere · privileged to ·know he r intimately, yet
many will sincerely mour.n .Mr-s. Munsell and fee l the =1 oss t o color of a devoted
friend.
··
, . :.
B. R. B. and D. N.
WILLIAM H.
BECK DIES
On Sunday, Octobe r 10, 1948, in Bal timore , Maryland, death 'came
unexpectedly to Wi lliam H. Bec!c, aged 61 . . The inunediate cause was
acute coronary oc clusion, due to arte rioscle r otic hea rt disease .
He l eaves a son, Wm. H. Beck, Jr ., and a daughte r, Ruth A. Krapp , both of Baltimore .
. Mr·. Be ck,, an .a ctive individual membe r ·of the Council s ince 19.36, was a very unu·s·u al
and quite. r emarkable person. As a philatelist he be carne interested years ago fn
col o r measurement and s pe cification of stamp· color. Because t>f' color cer tain stamp's
a r.e he ld to have more va lue than the same stamp with a more· usual c olor. Mr. Beck .
set. out. to find out why. He .delved into the subject so thoroughly that c'o l or -in~
stamps. became his life ' s hobby , a nd as an amateur he went into the subj-ect so com..:
pletely that in many phE:tses of color wo rk he was better inforrm.ed than many a
··' ·
I - S.C . C.
~1S
LETTER NO. 79
5.
November 1948
profes sional. He studied inks, paper, color r eflection and transmission, and was
finally · able to tell without question whether a pecu li ar or . odd st~m1p color was in
r eality as·unusual or valuable as it seemed by a dealer' s o.f .f er for s a le, or
whether the col or fitted into a definite pattern of change. due to fully explainabl e
caus es, and which often provided a very wiq.e color variation for a single stamp .
His studies of the color variation in a few single stamp issues , for example the
u.s . 3$i 11 pink11 of the· 1861 issue , l e d to the deve lopment of exhibits on co l or in
stamps . His r esearch earned awar ds fo r . him in 1933 and 1936 at the Baltimore
Philatelic Society's exhibits and at the Tipex show in .l 936 .
·
At the Centenary I nter national Philatelic Exhibit, held in New York May 17- 25, 1947,
Mr. Beck o r ganized and supe r vised a ve ry extensive Color Resea rch Ex hibit, asking
for and r e ceiving the cooperation of a gr eat many delegates and members of the
I- S . C.C~
Indeed, ·the exhibit sign read Color Exhib it 11 arraqged by Wm. H. Beck with .. · ·
the coopera tion . of a c onunitt~e of the Inter- Soc.iety Color Counc il. " The exhibit
·
inc l uded mounted pages of stamps t ·o show the ~ny types of co l or p roblems of which
a stamp collector s~ou l d be awar e, books and charts r egarding color and exhibits of
instruments , lamps , etc.. He even got the Internationa l Business .Machines Company
to p r ep.are a large exJ1ibi t ·panel ·to show how IBM machines c ould b.e. used to obtain
r . c .r~ data from t ab l es of· spectrophotometric measur ements.
Unt il 194 7 Mr . Beck worked in· ·va rious phases of engineer ing , e lectrical and automotive, but i n 1947 he became colbr consultant for National Plastics COlnpany, and
dur ing 1947- 48 -..·,as color anal yst for the Koppers Company , which took over the plant
with which he ·had been working at Be r ke ley Heights , N.J. It was ·not his pur pose to
continue on this work himself, but because qf the needs of th'e: field he fe lt
impelted to work on the co.lor in plastics prob ~ em long enough 'to show hov1 important
a good color r esearch progra.-n could be . One of his conditions when- he YJe,!lt into
the pln.stics work was that a younger man. ,be suitably tr ained by h.pn so as to avo id
loss to the program i~ he should step out . Shortly before his death , i n the midst
of p lastics color research that pleased him greatly, he indicated a des ire to get
back to stamp- color work and be f r ee to r~tu rn to his major color inter~st .
J•
As a membe r of Dr . Judd ' s committee on revision of th~ I SCC- NBS color names r eport ,
Mr . Beck at the time of h is death vms nearing comp~etion of a study of stamp- co lor
names . . He had spent many of his v1ee~ ends this ~urirrne r wor k ing on a ca r d ind~x
which only a fe'll weeks before he had· take n· to Was hington to dis cuss with the writer,
coming over late r to go ove r the work with.. Dr. Judd. · J n April, 1946 , he prepa red a
six- page outline of h is · e>..'Per i ence·~ in color r esearch. · It pegan i n 1916 wi th p r oblems of color appear ance for pr inted i~~s for .the Crown Cor k and Seal Company in
Baltimore. In 1936 he was awar ded a Silver- go ld medal a t the Third International
Philatelic Exhibition in New York for hi& eY-hibit on "Color Research i n Philately"; ..
and in that s ame year contributed a chapte·r on color to .".The Stamp Collector Is
Round Tabl e " published by Stokes (1937). He soon began _h is long . series -of spectra.:...:
photometric IoC . I. specifications of s·brunps , their inks a nd papers, and small diff erences calculated spectrophotometr ically, manJ: ?f them made for him at t he
Electrical Te sting Labor atories . In 1941 he arr anged an exni bit for the American
Philatelic Society in Baltimore. In 1943 he wr.ote an artic le for t he "Stamp
Specialist 11 Brown issue on tne Co lor Analysis of the 1,861 3$i U.S. stamp . In 1945
came an analysis of color differences of the U. S . 6¢ air- mail stamp for the August
Stamps Magazine ; and in May, 1947 , h9 arranged a color eY.hibit for the Centenary
Exhibi t described above . Altoget her he had prepared examples of his v1orlc in some
32 vo lume s, 11 x 1411 # about 90 pages per vo l ume . These are very r emarkable volumes ,
several of them devoted a l most com~ l etely to explaining and demonstrating technical
phases of color wor k .
·I - S . C. C.
~IS
6.
LETTER NO . 79
Novembe r 1948
... .
Mr ~ Beck was educated' in t h~ public schools of Baltimo r e . Wh il e his s t udy of coll ege l evel vras limite d to evening cou rses chiefly in e l.t?c~ ri ca l engineer ing 1 h is · ·.
se lf-education was s o thor ough that" he wou l d sear ch into the most highl y sci(;mtific
German as we ll v.s English lit"er atur e when he needed the answe r t o a probl em. Those
of u s who knew him b est can say with h i s s on that " he applie d his searching zeal to
o.ll the p r oblems h€1 ~ncount e re d i n "his work, h is hobbie s, as he .did to the color
work ; he was a student of the s ci ence that encompassed the pr ob l em at hand ." Co lor
i n s t amps was not his only avocation. He was int e r e sted in r o.di o c onst ruct i on,
crys t allogr aphy and mode ls to i~lus trate atomi c st r~ cture . He.,,.Vfas a q9ok colle ct or,
·p·a r t icu l a:rl y of t he · c l a s s i cs , scie!nces , . engi neering , . :e~y~holo gy , and v1as a membe l;'
of his l ocal Or ators Cl u bo
·
It is to be hoped that mu ch .of the c~ lo r inf orr.1a.~.ion and mat eri al as s embl ed during
his "l ifetime can be kep~ ~ogethe r arid. made available f or future wor k i n c olor .. · : .
Ce r tainly his stamp- co l or names work will be comp l,€1ted a~d used in the ISCC- UBS r e vision, and it may be that pt her unpublished nato r ial can a ~so be, put on record .
That is ·what .he would have vris hed . Mr. Beck leaves 'Qehind many f riends in the col or
field whose appreciat i on of his int e r est.,. enthusiasm and abil ity. t o delve soun.Pl y to
the bottom of any p r obl em grew with the years . We shall miss him at meetings and in
dropping in noYr and then when he needed he l p or when his enthusiasm for a p r oje ct
had r eached o. point vrhere he ha.d t o shar e .i t with an understanding c olor f ri end.
D.N.
The June 1lth issue of Science ce.r ded a report by fl • . I. Il lman
and D. H. Hrunly ,of t he Department of Botnlly, Univers i ty of
Tor ont o, on the Ri d~vay Color Standar ds , r eco r ding v i sual d i f ferences among s ever a l Ridgway chi ps havi ng the s ame co l or no.me .
An answer ing connnent i n the Octobe r 1 Sc i ence from J. T. Zi mmer of the Ame rican
Nruse~~ of Natural Hist ory suggests tho.t i f r efer ence s were r e s t r icted to the original wor k, such d i ffe r ence s woul d not be found .
HIST OR I CAL NOTE
ON RI DGWAY ·.
COLOR · CHARTS
The one person f r om whom the f acts can best be obtai ned r egar d i ng ~ he questions
r aised about vari ous e dit i ons, etc ., of Ridgway i s Mr. A. B. Hoe n of the A ~ HOen and
Company of Bal t i more which ·printed the 1912 edition f or Ridgway o.nd took ove r t he
expense of publicat ion when Ridgway found that he could not take care of i t . The
A.- Hoen and Company, lithogr aphe r s , have o. wo rld- wi de r e putat i on f or fi ne oo l or
wo r k (be i ng par t icu l a rly we ll known f or t}J.e ir maps, printing a ll of t he Nati on a l ..
Geographi cal Soc i ety 's maps ) . Mr. A. B. Hoen was per sona lly conne cted wi th the
very conside r abl e amount of car efu l co l o r-mat ching work that went i nt o pr oducti on 1
of the 1912 Ri dgway cha r ts .
·
Your Secre t a ry therefo r e wr ot e t o Mr. Hoen fo llowing publi cat ion of the r e cent
Sc i ence i tems to ask i f he wou l d not set the r ecor d s t r aight. I n 1942, i n answer to
a l ett e r on the s ame gener al su b ject, l1r . iioen ho.d indicated then that the 1912
edition of the Ridgway Color "Standar ds was· to ho.ve been 5 , 000 copies but that
throu gh di r f iculties i n handl ing sever a l of the · color steets , this numbe r was not
completed befo r e dis t ribution began . Subsequently, however, new c olor sheets we r e
made ; and by 1942 when ·the lette r was wr itten, those that were miss i ng had been
bound up i nto comp l ete sets t o satisfy the delilands c;>f "the ,public . Mr. Hoen r eplie d
to the Secr etary ' s l etter by coming i n to vis i t her the very next week (Octobe r 12)
while i n ~ashington on an unusual anJ very i nte r e sti ng co l o r- rep~odu ct i on job f or
t he Libr a ry of Congr e ss. Al though hi s per sonal inte r e s t i n t he Ri dgway wor k i s
still keen, most of the · work handl ed by his company is on such o. volume basi s that
thei r i nteres t in the pr oduct i on of color charts (fo r the~r l ost money on the Ridgway
even at ~25 . 00 per copy) is very low.
..
I - S . C.Q . NEWS LETTER NO. 79
. Novembe;r 1948
. 7.
'•
'
)
With tl:le : 1886 edition of the Ridgway book the Hoen company had nothi ng to do; but ·
they produced , th~ 191 2 ed ~tion . They matched the color . pag~s . they p.repared (on
sheets about 1 7 ~ 22 " ) , and- checked them after · the sheets were dry bot}). against
. sample s supp lied by R_i dgway o.nd by d i sk mixtur e s . But the disk mixtur es somet i mes
l ook~d g.ray_, , ..vr{lich they attr i:9uted to impe-r fect cutting of d i s k edges ; and while the
hue a nd, intensity of the co l or.s were kept , they used .. the "cleanest" or 11 c l enr est 11
~o l.or they could get in each S!3ries.
1'heir Mr . Portugal, ~ proved and exper t co l or
man, did the matching • .The .y-ellows caused the- most trga'ule; also some reds. Perhaps some of the mixtures of col o rants may not have stood up as we ll a.s t {1ose
colors in which s i n gl e or stnbl e combinati ons of colo r ants were used, but there was
no way of foretell i ng this flt the time. Great care .was taken in the preparat i on of
the colorants . In .fact, they were first ground in oil; but the hues were too much
chang_ed . by· i;;he vehi.c l e . So -linseed oil v1as abandoned, and the colo r ants mixed with
·~ starch.
Tl;e colors were prepared on l arge sheet s a~d these were cut to the chip
size used. -in the bo.oks . .
.
.
rhe gl ue us~d:- .on ,the sampl e~ .:was stamped .on ir,1 a~ auJ;omat ic machine. This adhesive
was some us ual fluid gl ue, and Mr. Hoen t"l10ue_;ht it possible that,it l)lay haYe been
responsible for some of the color changes. In mounting the first cha rts t oo much
glue was used, and many of these first cha rts therefore had to be discarded . Afte r
the sample9, wi~h glue on the ba.ck, we re dropped i n p lace on the pr oper sheets,
thei r posit.i ons we r e adju sted by gi rl s us i ng needles t o push each samp l e accurately
i nto pl~ce.;
. The books origine.lly . bound we re not as many as inten~ed since the supply·. of c o 1 or .
:c h ips f or s orne of the f irst ch13.rts was . decreased by spo ilage in mo\lnt i ng . When t he
s upply of bound copies r an out, t he ca l l for,mo re.b9oks .was . so great that a new suppl y of t he few missing co l ors wa s made . These werf;l m~~e to match the original
co l ors, not more than about 25 co l ors being invol ved . No new pr i nting was necessary,
and the s e few repl ac i ng co l ors were use9. to compl ete t}).e binding of more charts.
The stock is now exhausted, the Hoen Company themse l ~e~ havi ng only four cop i es put
away fo r roferenc~.
Thus there has been. only one edition of the Ridgway cht;J.rts that we r e f i rst made by
Hoen i n 1912, the or iginal binding in 1912, a nd anot her l at e r bind ing . It i s of
historical interest to know a ls.o that a. series of w:hat l ooY.:s l i ke half. of.. ·the original se r ies used as a basis for Ridgway ' s 1912 edition is on deposit at the National
BU r eau of Standards . The charts in the 1912 edition d~ffer completely from the han~
painted wate r -co l o r char ts of the ori5inal . edit~on of Rid~Nay published in 1886 by
Litt l e , Brovm & Co., Boston, under the title: Nomenclature of Color for Naturalists .
The ear ly book contained ten color plates with 186 samples of named colors , The
1912 edition, supe;rvised by Ridgway and prepa r ed by Hoen , was a compl e.te revi sion
..and enlargement of this e£-rli e r boqk, contail}ing 53 plates and 1115 named colors .
•.
'
We believe i t important to make the above informa·~ion available to color workers, .
and wish to thank Mr . Hoen f or supp lying it. It will also be of .interest to all
worker s. who us e Ri dgway to .l:nov-r. that Prof o -Ha.mly has made a Ridgvr::-.y-IJunse ll conve rsion that he expects to have ready for presentation at the spring meeting of the
Optical Society of Ame r ica.
In News Letter No . 51, pages 4- 5 (Jan , 1944), the Editor quoted
from ,his lett er ·to Dr. Al be rt ·c. Barnes , noted ar t cr iti c , collector ~nd chemist , acknowledging his debt of gratitude to Dr.
Barnes .for his fine work, "The. Art in Painting ." That hi s humble opinion is shared
SO ALSO A NOTED
PHILOSOPHER .
I
'
I - S . C. C. NEflS LETTER NO. 79
8.
•
I
November 1948
in illustrious circles may be gathered from the f .ollowing quotation .fr om ..the pen of
John Dewey answering, · in J. Aesthetics & Art Criticism 6 , 208 (No. 3 , · March 1948), ·
Benedetto Croce ' s criticism of Dewey's "Art as Experie.~1ce" (1934).. _The great philosopher \VTate : 11 I d.o riot thin}{ I exagge r ate in saying that I owe· more to the books
on ··the plastic arts written by the man to .whom rey book is dedicated,. Albe rt c.
Barnes ,· ··than to all :t·he official treat ises on e.r t composed by philosophers. 11 On 1 •
page 209 is more in e:>.-plar.ation. And, by the way, since we published a note ab~ut
the organization ,of the American Society of Aesthetics, · we not.e that ~ohn Dewey is
a member.
Two a r ticles b;y Fabe:r Dirren~ v e ry differeny in nature .
from. one anothe r, have appeared re~ently . One appeared ·
in the American Llagazinc for September, 11iThat 1 s Your
Colo r ?11 It is in a light vein, the sort of thing Birren doe~ .:.ery well. The other
is entirely serious in nature , a report to a scientific group on industrial ophthalmology, the Ophthalmic Aspects of Illumination, Brightness ~nd C.o lor, reprinted
from the Transactions of the AJaerican AcadeJ!\Y of Ophthalmology ~nd Ot~laryngology,
May-June 1948, pp • . 566'- 84 .
RECENT ARTICLES BY
FABER BI RREN
Without doubt Mr . Birren 1 s practical experience ~ith industry ' s pr~blem~ in .color
and illumination is such that he is able to speak with authority in this field .
Moreove r he has been thinking se riously for some time of the many and sometimes
conflicting p r incip les l aid down r egardi ng good lighting practice . In 1945 , his
Color in the · Plant appeared in Fact and Management (February) ; in _l .945 , Color and
Psychotherapy in Mode rn H0spital (Aug. - Sept . ); in 1947 , Functionalism with Color in
- Nation 1 s Schools (May) ; The Specific.a tion of Illumin~tion and Color in Industry in
Trans . Ainer . Acv.d . Ophthal . (Jan .-Feb.) , and in 1948 , On Understanding , Color in
Illuminating Engineering (July.) .
While we do not find that Mr . Birren is _unequiv:ocal in his .conclusions (nor can we
agree with some of his proposals) we believe it is a good thing ~o get this entire
subj e ct out in the open, with a n oppor tunity fo r full discussion . Therefore , while
we shall not here review the r eport , vre do Yrish to . ca11 it to the attention of
those who may be interested .
PRESENT-DAY
LIGHTING
PRINCIPLES
, DISCUSSED
In connection with the pre ceding item attention should· .b e
c ~lled to several articles in the September l948·number .
of Illuminat ing Engineering . First there is a. 73 - page r~­
port on Americ.&n Standard Pra.ctice for School Lighting.
Following this is a cri~ica.l discussion by Miles A.
Ti'llker of the Unive r s ity of Uinnesota on Trends in . Illunination ~tandards , with
discuss ion ·which includes an extensive r ep ly by Matthew Luckiesh • . 'l'he issue concludes vritb a. ve ry useful report by M. E . Bitteman, o:: the Department of Psychology
of Co rnell Un i versity, on Lighting and Visual · Eff iciency : The Present Status of
Research, also followed by extensive discuss ion by Dr . Lucki~sh . The s omev1hat
he ated discussion, particularly in the Tinker- Luckiesh exchang~ , p r obab l y presents
this contr oversial subject in the best sort of way for the uninitiated observer to
understand most easily the gene r a l principles involved • . Illumination eng ineering,
like applied colorimetry, is still in its infancy, and reports of this sort c an help
to clear away some of the. cobwebs .
CH ' ING
Since in a previous issue and elsewhere in t h is issue we
discuss a Chinese _po lar term, we. thought it worth while
to discuss here the term Ch'ing, taking our information chiefly from an a r ticle by
I-S.C.C. -NEWS LETTER NO. 79
.. 9.
. November. 1948
Helen·E. ·Fer'nald'<-iil- Art and> ArchaeolO'gy ·34,, 93·-:s (1934). The article deals with
the "Hsiang Albu.rtl., II a · 16th~century manuscript by the ·Ming dynasty scholar, Hsiang
YUan-pien (1525-90 ). A£te~ an earlier edition of the work edited by a certain S.
Bushell, whom Miss Fernald thought saw greens as blue and faded and therefore might
have been "color-blind, 11 there· appeared ·an edition r evised and annotated by· Kuo
Pao-ch' a:ng and J. c. Fergu·son. It contained 85.··color ·plates , sold for $300,00 and
was 'publislied in 19.31 by the ,·Chi Chai Pl,l.blishing Co. of ·Peiping. The title wa:s
"Noted Porce lains of Successive Dynasties, With comments···.and illustrations by
Hsi~g YUan-pien•" . The manus cript, not the 1934 article, has a table of col or
terms with English translations. But Miss Fernald thought that the question of the
meaning of Ch' ing had no.t ·been sett:led~ For Fen Ch 1 ing was called a pale greenish
blue , though illustrations and original specimens appeared bluish green to her.
Some Ch' ings were .yellowish enough to be described as yellow-green. · Fen Ch 1 ing was
mean.t -to be "the .col or of the sky after r ain · in the process of clearing," that is,
"delicate greenish blue very c l ose to the border of green and b lue" (Fernald). But
in the early days 'the potters were unable to follow the formulas close l y enough to
obtain the indicated color. · Ai'ter reading the ·.artic l e the· Editor still had some
doubts as to the exact ·meaning 'o f · Ch' ing, except to believe that the best Ch 1 ings
varied from greenish blue to bluish green, with the f~rmer p referred by Miss
..
Fernald. Since s he recommends the Munsell system as the only satisfactory one for
studying pottery ·colors, ·.it shou ld be mentioned that the Munsel l blue (is nn.lch
greener than that used by ·most people, so that her " greenish blue" might be a decidedly greenish one. On the other hand, the description related to the sky does
not .suggest this , so we are still left somewhat mystified and appeal to any of our
readers who may have information on this subject to set us str·a i ght. Th.e modern
American textile Ch ' ing does not he lp, for it is a very saturated blue, near the
Munsell pur pl e - blue, which in hue is not, however, too far fr.om the blue of others.
Since its. inception in '1940, the British Physical Society
Colour Group has been facilitating progress and understanding in .. the scientific and technical aspects of various s·ig.nificant color proble:ns. The- .present Committee of the Colour Group provides
in its recent report on color terminology, a triple achieve1nent , ·-viz., (1) a record
of the contemporary usages of various important groups of color workers, (2) a correlation 1·1ith respect to meaning of the most conunonly used color terms, and (3)
tentative recommendation of a li.st of self-consistent terms and definitions for 'all
color workers .
"REPORT ON COLOUR
TERMINOLOGY" .
The redord of contemporary usages was assembled :by cooperative -eff-ort ·of individua'l
co~~ittee members 'covering their respective fields of specialization.
They receiv&~
assistance in drafting their list of terms and definitions by the societies and organizations of various color groups, some of whom are represented on the Committee.
J
Th~s basic information ,is: classified in t.he Reporti into six main categories ·as
follows : (1) Terms used in · Colour Physics includin·g General Terms,· Photometric
Terms, Subjective Colour Terms, and Colorimetric .Terms; · (2) Terms used in C<rlour
Vision, (3) Terms used in the Munsell and Ostwald Systems , (4) Terms used in Ordinary Speech, (5) Terms used in Industry including the Dyeing Industry, the Paint
and Pigments Industries , Colour Photography, · the ~lass Industry, and the Decorating
Trade, (6) Terms used by Contemporary· ~tists. A valuable and unusual feature running through the 35 pages of this po rtion of the Report is the inteispersing of the
definitions with numerous orienting and explanatory passages. Student and expert
alike aFe . benefited ·by this feature. '. ·.
·The second main problem, that df the correlati·on ·. of. colo:r terms , is of. c·ourse of
I-S. C. C• NEWS 'LETTER NO. 79
10.
Novembe r .1948·.-
paramount i mportance a nd has .its .analog in ·nearly every branch of scientific or .
t echnical knowl edge . In the present instance the approach was by way.. of an attempt
to work out a r eally se l f - cons istent list of color terms. As .one might expect, . ·
the re we re various difficulties ; some t e r ms have mor e t han one meaning in a givep
f i e ld or indus·t ry e.s we ll as · different meanings in different ··rields . The gu iding
prin cip l a here was t o choos e the term entailing the .fewest changes but to give
weight ·to terms most used with a.s:i:ngle meaning; :and to conform as c losely as might
be to the usages of ordinary s peech . Wl'len.te r rns we r e f ound to be r edundant , the
practice was to adopt one term to the excl usion of others. vVhen the . adopted .ter m
rep laced different terms in different industries, the r esult was an increase in
unification of termi nology . Ve ry f ew new te r ms seemed necessary.
~ ·
As a device for determining the suitability of particule,r terms for i nc l us ion in
the se lf- consistent ' list, a gene r a l c orre l e.tion 'tabl e was p repar ed . This table, . 1
which appe ars on pages 42 and 43 of the Report , pr ovides a gene r al view of equiva- .. 11
l ent terms of the variol,ls color groups with respoct to various color concepts. ·' : ·.
Te r ms rre r e separate l y ·tested and assi gned or rejected by reference to thi s tabl e .
The term shade proved t o be difficu lt and the term brightne ss was the most
difficu l t of all .
An inte r esting vien of the Committee whi ch may be noted here , is that whe r eas "the
causes or confusion i n colou r . te:tminology. ·a re the mu lti plicity of meanings gi ven
to the same t erm e.nd the mu ltiplicity of. te~·ms used to cover the same ,meaning, 11
there are only seven terms which caus e this confusion (brightness, ~omina.nt · hue ,
shade , tone , deep , dull, pure).
The third main p r oblem, that of the . r e corrunendatiom of a self- consistent list of
color t e rms , is answe red spec.ifically by means of the lis t which nas worked out
w~th the aid of the co rre l at io~ table and is presented on page 45 of t he Repor t .
This -list . included 35 univocal terms with brief defim i tions which are re gar~ed as
suitable fo r use by a ll col or v10 r ke r s . A fo llowing tabl e shows the change s in
pre sent usage which would be. , required of each gr oup of users , i n. case the se lf-·
consistent list we r e . adopted ,
Tho Committee is fami liar with the Col orimetry Repo r t of the Optical Soc i ety of
America and professes gene r a l agre ement with i ts t e rms and recommendat ions . The re
are , however, a numbe r of s pecific disagr eements and preferences which a re pointed
out, e . g. , i llumination is p r efe rred over (Ame rican) illumi nance, direct is pre f e rred ove r specul a r, matching stimuli is pr efe r r ed ove r instrumental sti muli,
r eference stimul i i s ·preferred ove r unitary stimuli, defective colour v is ion is
pr-eferred over co lor bl i,ndness . Important defi nit i ons which differ are those for
li ght , col or and luminos ity ~ ·
Though Ame r ican usages are taken into account to some extent , as indicated above ,
t he chief limitation of the .rteport (for Ame rican use r s) r emains its ·l imi t ation of
scope ; it is e ssent i a lly a treatment of British usage s ~ which is of cours e what i t
set out to be .
It may be said in e;eneral that s e rious v:or k on t e rms and definitions is not particul a rly appealinc to most membars of t e chnical and scientif ic groups, and a s a con se- _
quence compar ative ly lit t l e has been done where much needs to be done . The p r esent
Committee is to be congratul ated on carrying thr ough i ts project and c;etting out its
Report on Colour Te rmi no l obY which is a va luab l e , · constructive conttibution ·to this
difficult and importa nt problem. Some idea of the cons ide rat i on and care wh ich vrent
into this p r oj ect can be gained from the fact that 21 full meet i ngs and many smalle r
(
:.. I-'S • C. C. • . NIDYS LETTER NO . 7 9
. 11.
·;:.:_-; ~
:.
Novembe r .· J_948
meetings we r.e he l d during the si~ years of effo rt .i nvo lved. The ; wo r k was under the
guidanc~ of Mr .· H. D·. Murray .wl)o '!fa~ Secr et!;ry during the.· fi r si;.. .five meetings and
.Mr . R. G• . Ho r ner." who was Secretary for the remainder of the .proj-ect . The other ~·
Committee m~I)'lbers were : Dr.• R . K. Sqhofield (Chairm!;D), .Majo r .A • .: Cornvrel_l- Clyne , ._.
Mr . H. W-• ._E;llis , Dr. E . J. Gooding, . Mr. J . Gt;tild , Dr . V; . G. w. Har:r:ison ,· ·Prof. H~
Har tridge , Mr . J. G. Hol mes , Mr.. J . Lawrance, Mr.·,. E~ ~. ·v-ve lls, Mr. -G. s.. J. ·white ,
iiir . G. T. Winch a..lld Dr . W. D. Wright.
(Ed . Note: The Report -on Co l our Terminology . by a Committee of the Colour qroup of
the l;'}:lysical So ciety, -1 Lowther. Gardens , Prince Consort. Road , London s.w. 7; pp . 56;
1948 ; was priced at ·7 s ,_ net~. to non- members.-)
It seems of interest to add he r e that the work of the above Committee of the Co lou r
Group of ·the Pey,sical Society ~s c losely. rel ated to that .of, the I - S . C. C. Problem·
Committee 6, 11 Color Ter !J,ls ·, ':' . : The l atte r corrnnittee has-r;ecent l y completed -a Cqmparative List of. Co l or Terms cover-ing -the usae;es of 14 technical and scientific -g r oups
in the United States 13-nd including the te-rms defined . by the · Co lour Group of the
Physi cal Society . The first stage in the work of both corrnnittees was essentially .
identical, ·viz . , to co llect .the current terms ·and definitions . ' The second.stage in
the work of both committees was esse~tially similar; the British committee wor ked
out a general correlation table of the · meanincful relations between terms of different user- groups , w~ile the American ~ommittee p repared a detailed comparativ~ -~
list showing identical , similar and ' diff erent usages of different user- groups. The
r ecommended self- consistent list of terms which c l imaxed ·.the work of the British
committee has no -paral l el in the American work~ It s eems fair to say, howeve r, that
both comrnit ·tees a re maldng s ignificant contributions . in redu.cing confusion and inereasing un ~f i c at ion in color terminology. Both are contributing to increased
inte rnati onal uncler s.t and.i ng .
(Ed .- See - a lso a rticle '-' Dye r 1 & Bri ghtne ss " in News Letter .No .. 78, pp . 11-14;
Sept • . 1948)
S.. M. Newhall
Recently there came to our attention an article entitled· ...
" Color Or ganization.in the · Ostwald System, 11 written by
Walte r C. Gr anville , I - S.C.C . Counse llor and r epresentative
from two of its member- bodies. It i s.. a fi v.e - page articl e which ·appea-red in the
American Ink 1Iaker issue of June and August , 1948, and c an be highl y recommended as
a very strai ghtfQi=,.vard , lucid ~d well illustrat ed exposition of the Os:twald 3ystem.
The six. fi gures clearly ~ resent the ·ostwald analysis into contents of white, fullcolor and 'Qla.ck, th.e. :meaning of t he shadow series and such • others as t.he · 11 li ght
,clear" and. " dark. Clear" series and the color solid a rranged along Ostwa:id ·'lines .
'rhe two "cletar 11 ·s.eries ~d t he t ypical Ostwald triang le (with r ed the full color) ,
as .well as a diag ram showing how color harmonies a re suggested by the Ostwa ld
arrang~ment , a r c well p r esente d by using ·red ink along wit h :;he bl ac ~: inl~ .
OSTWALD
SYSTEM
J
Pointing out that c'olor har mony is not achie ved me rely by se.le·cting colors ·that -look
well ;together by themse l .v es , he quotes Harry .V. Ma rshall as ·follows (E.C . Andrevrs; ;:.
11
Color .S ecrets , " Philip· Buxton, Inc., .A Divis i on of The Internationa l P-rintihg Ihk' ,.
Corp .; . l 930 ) : · " In mer-c handising, the selection of suitabl~ colors should' be regu- '
lated by thr ee consideratiqns -- the a r ticle we· are .·s elJ.ing -- safety p'ins- or
steamships , tomato soup or cosmetics ; t o whom we ·.· appeal -- men or women, child ren or
corporations; and the manne r of . presentation - - poster·s or periodicals, catalogs or
containers." From this he .reasons tha t rule s f or color. .hat'ID.ony can only suggest
I - S.C. C. NEWS LETTER lfO . 79
l2~
November 1948
c·o l or s that are r elated to· one anot he r in an orderl y way which i s applicable to our
special needs and prob l ems ; and oY ~curse assumes, vnth Ostwald and Munsell , that
easi l y sensed order leads to improved harmony . But he ··adds sens ibly th·at , H one. ·
doesn ' t want to follow any rules at all, the removable - and easily movable chips of
the Co l or Harmony J,:anual sold by · his company {Container Corporation of America)
prbvide exemplo.r s for trying out .. one ' s ovm selections .
During September and Octobe r we received two bulletins on
these instruments Which may be of inte r est to any of our
read6r s ·who may not have received copies. One descTibes
the Ne.-r Lovr- Cost Portable Instruments made by the Laboratory, the Nevr 60° Gl ossmeter
and the Uew 45°- 0° Reflectometer. The other is an eight- page bulletin entitled
"Instruments for iieasuring Appearance and Other Optical Factors . 11 Besides the fore going instruments and ·the Multipu rpose Reflectometer, as well as photometric unit
and exposure heads•and cont i nuous recorders and cont r ollers, the bulletin describes
the Photoe l ec tric Co l 0r and ·c olor Difference Meter , which was described by R. S.
Hunter at a r e cent Optical .Socie'ty of America meeting , and which has evoked much
interest t hen and since~ · especial ly because of its di rect~ reading color- difference
featu r es . These bul letins may be obtained by ~riting to the Irenry A•. Gardner
Laboratory , Inc ., 4723- E1m s.t re~t , Be_thesda 14, Mary l ~d .
GARDNER- HUNTER
INSTRUMENTS
COLOR I N
"FOUNDATIONS
Tpe recentl y pu.b lished work of -the quoted tit l e has been
br ought to our a·ctenti on becau·se ·it· i nc l udes a chapte r on
OF PSYCHOLOGY"
co l or wri tten by Dr. Forrest L. Dimmick, former chairman
of the ISCC and professor of phychology at Hobart College
and now at the U. S. Naval Medi cal Research Laboratory at Nevr London, Conn. Dr .
Dimmick has here undertaken an extremely difficult task, that of condens ing i nto 27
pages a very complex fie l d which emb r aces contributions from many. of the common
divisions of knowledge : physiology, psychol ogy, .physics and even chemistry and
esthetic's. He proceeds from his own metho'd of anal ysis' of colors to the rel ations
of color and its stimulus, thence to colo r mixture. From here, where the r e is an
excellent statement of the laws of mixture, he skips li ghtly (and wisely, we think)
throue;h colorimetry on to color phenomena (adaptation, afterimages , etc . ) to color
blindnes·s, wh~re ·, . as everyone knows, the author is very much at home, ending with a:
necessa r ily brief se ct ion on physiology . Dr . Dimmick has also written a chapter on
Visual Space Perception; and there is included also· a chapter on Perception, embracing such subjects as whiteness constancy, by E. B. lJewnan.
e
Dr . Dimmick has made his task s l ightly harde r by us ing a tenth of his total space
plugging for his own mode of analyzing a.n:d specifying colors in terms of seven ·
"unique" colors , including gray among these . He r ee;ards the ·more orthodox "color
equa.;t;ion, " including only the pairs red or green , blue or yellow and black or white ,
as.rather outmoded because of his expe r imental r esearches in this field . ~Vhile the
r eviewe r r egards as rather refreshing any new and alternative analysis of colors ,
and can see no objection to the Dirnnick method of specification for those who r egard
gray as unique and who are unab l e to see in all grays much resemblance to black or
·white (or both), the reviewe r cannot easily go the whol e way in re garding the
Dimmick an~lysis as inherent in our mode of pe rcepti on nor more usefUl than the
orthodox way . Gray seems to the r eviewer as something resulting from· blends, not of
the stuff out of which blfnds are made ; but he sees- no s e rious objection to the
newer anal ysis if others find it more convenient to thi nk that way. It is perhaps
worth mentioning that gray has no comp l ement, while al l of Di~nick ' s (and others ' )
unique col ors.do. One sense in which gray is unique, however, is found on page 283
under the heading Adaptation . Here the gene r a l law of color adaptation is· stated as :
11
With continued duration a ll colors tend toward gray . "
I
I - S . C.C . NEWS LETTER NO. 79
13 •
.. .
Novembe r 1948
Given the Di!lli!lick mode of analys i s, a l ucid section flows s moothl y here f r om his
first· ~d very· i:nte r es ting sect ion on Col or tfame s . He r e seven figures cpnstitute a
useful aid · to ·clarity. In all of the soli d i'~gu res a !fd th~ir' 'sect i ons , . gray occupies the c'e nt r al pos ition ; in this g.e omet r ical sense , .gray i.s unique. In t he
autho r' s Figure 113 , exhi biting the " Dimens~ons of the. ,Color Figure. Showing lfue ,
Saturati on .and Br i ghtness.," the r e viewe r s ees pictured r~l~t i <?t:l S .which do some .
viol ence to h is oVJn preconce i ved notions , though these may consist l a r ge ly of crys talliz ed (and r ather set) o r thodox representati ons. Here gray is put centrally
along '·the white - black axis, with yell ow opp osite it and equally distant f rom b~ack
and \'lhite, implyi ng (to most peop l e) equQ.l r esembl ances to the s e . For the r eviewer,
y e llow ceases to be char acte l'istically ye l low when ~t does not more o:r l es s resemble
-white and begins ·to r e s emble .b l ack even slightly . Also,. r ed is put . in: the fi g\.i re
near <white and gre en ne~r· b l ack • . To us, the. typi c ~;l r eds .a~d g r eens seem to be about
equal · i n the ir resemblance s to black ai1d white ,. though perpaps slig,h tly diffe r ent i n
a'· direction reversed from the author 1 s r ep r e sentation.
..
Though a student finds · little in the chapter · to he lp i n.the unde rs tanding of saturation, a difficult· concept fo r a beginn e r (if not for :n~ exper t s ), a t ' otP,e r .. po i nts
one finds such il lustr ations of Dimmick ' s spe cial tal ents as his rep r e s ent~tion of
the color so lid as a double hedgehog b ri stling with saturat.io.n lines . F ro~ t h is
point on the t r eatment is mo r e conventional and hand l ed wi th the author's usual
careful ness of · statement .
·rn view of the bre vity of the c hapte r:. one who knons the capabilit i e s of the author
as we ll as this reviewe r d oes , is Y.is;ited with fl. f ee l ing of r egret, as when he sees
a thoroughbred ··horse he l d too complete ly. under wr.aps,. One is incline d to hope the
editors will devote more page s to that colorfu l · s~bjeFt color -- D~~ick once said
-ehat magenta as a stimulus is equ.i va l ent to two .cockta ils - - in futur e .r evis i ons ,
for we arc sure the r e wi l l be f urthe r edi t i ons of so fine a volume • . The ed.itors .
are Pr o-fe s s or E. G. Bo.ring of Harvard , Dr. H." S . Langfe ld of Pr inceton and Dr . 'H. P.
We ld of Corne ll; and t he re we re 18 ·c ollaborato r s.. The compos i n_g sl-:::ill. of .t~e pupUshers, John Hiley and Sons , is evident thr oughout the book 's 632. l arge p ag_es and
24.8 figu r es . The cost is only four doll ars .
I . H. G.
' '
Miss Ni cke r son 1 s. :qoto qn celadons i n News Letter l~o. 78 ,
stimu lated by the wo r l::: of thq i~ing ' s .seen in Cal ifor n ia,
caused the Editor to di g i n the s hadowy depths of his memory
and unearth the foll owing quotat ions from Be n j a.'llin f:rarch ' s
inte r esting "Standards of Pottery De script i on•. 11 : This is Occasional Contribution
No . 3 from the Museum of Anthropo l ogy of the Unive rsity of ·IHchigan (1934) , chapte r
IV of which i s wholly on color . The author was working in Washing"~?on and Ann Ar bor
under the p rovisions of C. L. Freer ' s bequest to the unive r sity for r e se a rch i n
Ori ental art ; and he began his monogr aph v;i th the questton ; 11 Hovr may the Uni versity
of Michigan 1 s Chi nese ce l adons from the Phil ippines be c c;>mpa r ed with the fine examp l es of the ware that a r e p,r e served in th~ Free r Co.ll£;3 cti on (of . the Free r Gallery of
Art in Washington , D. C ~ )?
MORE ON
CELP.DONS
AND COLOR
The c hapte r on color (p age 23) begins : " Of all the attributes of pottery none is
more impres sive than. co lor.'' The author then goes on, to say : · "Whil e a .conno isseur
will assay the aest heti c me rit s of a v a se p rimarily ori t he basis of i ts . s)a9;pe, the
deco r ative value of ce ramic vesse ls is generally conce i ved a l mos t wh~ lly in ter ms of
color . -color i s a. p r imary crite rion fo r r eady identif i 9 ation~ a~d consequently it is
the most av a ilable characte r istic for gen e r a l classi~icat i on • . : Thus we s peak of red
I - s.c . c. NEV'iS LETTER NO. 79
November 1948
-14.
v1are and buff vta re •••• among the po.ttcrios of the. Ame rican Indians, and of • • •• ce'l;..
adoh a nd othe r ware s amon g mor e hig hl y advanced potte rs such a s t he Chinese . It is
espe cially unfortunate , then, that the.r e is among student s of ·ce r amics no accep ted
standard of color nome nclatur e which would insure a positiv~ · and pe r mane nt interpro tatiori · for each color term used ill the descript ion of ·a pie ce of. pottery.·"
On pagz 24 is found the following paragr ap h.
11
The peculia r gray- gr een glazes known
as celadons p r esent · complica tions- that a r e simila rly difficult. In China ce1o.don . ·. ·
glaz e has bee n app li ed to porcelains and fine stoneware s ·since t he ninth cent ur y at
least, reaching tl1e peak so far as aesthetic quality is conce r ned probab l y i ri the
thirteenth century. Di·stinctions have be en dr avm between the colors of several ·different ki l ns iri t he. t hirteenth century, a nd between Chinese, · Japanese , Korean, and
Siamese celadons , ·as weil· ·as between the ce l adons of diff e r ent. periods in China ; but
no desc ription has -yet proved really .adequa te. The Chinese have typically comp a red
the ce l adon co lor to the tint ·of young ·on ions, but they never mention hovv young t he
onions should be , and the co l or mutations t h rough a few days of growth may be ve~
noticeable . · ·Grass is a very uns table basis fo r exac t comparison, an d when one'
observe r calls celadons · gras·s - or onion-gr een, and another r efe r s to them as olive
in hue it is apparent that confusion must a r ise ."
The author the n g oes ··on t o· say that color analysis by means of llia.JC\ve ll disks " or
some other labora tory devi ce ". is r ather too complicated to ·be gener ally app lied , ·
discusses the Ridg;way (1912) book of color standar ds , and r e connnends the u s e of the
" Dictionary of Color" (I.IcGraw-Hi ll, 1930) I by ·A. Mae rz and 11. R'e a Paul,. the latter ·
a re peat Chairman of t he ISCC, pointing out t hat the 1atte r work r epr odu ced t he color
standards of the forme r wo r k . In this conne cti on it may be mentioned t hat the
M & P Dictiona ry ' s 11 cela don· green ," sample 21 B 4, has t he ¥runs ell notation· 5 GY ·
. 5.6/2. 4, acco r d ing to the· averaged comparisons with three cop i e s o f t.he M -& ·p work
made by i.lr s. Genevieve ReLrna.n n and the Editor . Grass g ree n, 21· L 5, was 4 . 5 GY
5. 6/5 . 7; pea c;reen, 2 0 G 6, wa s 6 . 5 GY 5. 6/4.5 ; and o live g reen, 15 -1 4 , was 9 . 5 Y ·
3,8/3.8, the hue varyi~g in t he t hree cop i e s from 7.5 to 10 Y. Thes·e .are s o- c a lled
"book notations , " not "re- notations . 11 l~o ·" onion g reen 11· i s listed or de s cribe d in ·
Maerz a nd Paul. Accordi ng t o a p roposed revision of· the ISCC- NBS co lor-name de scriptions , ce1ad on gre e n of 1J. & P would be a " gray ish y e llow gr een." The Editor,
i n Webster ' s New Inte r n a tional Dictionary, translating M & P, descri be d t he color
as ".greenish- ye llow in hue, of low satura tion and medium ·b rilliance (lightne ss)."
March devote s t h ree p ages to t he method of ·us i ng M & P to determine p ott ery c olors.
He ·then goes on (p . 29- 30) to say : 11 In t he study of cel adons the ge nera l r ange of
the term 'is f a irly we ll understood, but we find a wide· r·ange of gr ay- green and bluegre'e n tints included i n the classifi cation . The di'fferentiation of Lung- ch ' uan
celadons . in general from the specialized Chang y a o, and both from the later products
of Ch i ngtechen ·will necessitate exact color definition of known or r e a son ably certa in
examp le s. As ye t . no a dequate study has been made, but i t i s hoped that -the extensive
celadon coll e ction of the Museum of Anthropology will yie l d some va l uable· i nfor.mation
on type ran ge s and tne r e lation of c'o l o.r to other a ttributes . Certain examp l e s ·of
ce l adons may be cited fro m s pecimens i n the Free r Gallery ·of'· Art i n Washingt on:, D·. c.,
a coll ection noted for the supe rior qua lity of its c ontents . The standard cela don
of Maerz and Pau l is 21 B 4 , ih ·t he yellow to green · gr oup . A bowl r egarded as of
Lung- ch ' uan t y pe but l a:te r tha n Sung ( 960-1280 A. D. ) in the Freer c'olle ction has a
glaze 21 B· 5, a l most t he standard . A vase of w:hat is ge ner ally kn owh as Su ng dyn'a sty
Lung-ch ' uan type, howe v e r , ha s a glaze of 26 C 5, i n the gr een t o· b l ue - green g r oup .
A small bowl des cribed as "la t e Sung, Lung- ch ' uan type" has a glaze of 28 D 5 appr oximating Frenc h gray. A. Ko rean celo.don bowl is g l a ze 30 A 3 , i n t he green to b l ue -
~
\'
15 ••
I -S . C. C. Nffi1S LETTER NO 79
November 1948
green group, and two bowls of Northe rn celadon type fall into the orange to yellow
group , 14 I 2 a."l.d 14 J 3, approximating silver fe rn. 11
I
I
I. H. Godlove ; Rayon Text ile Monthly 23 , 289- 91 (Hay 95- 7),
339- 40 (June 93- 4), 390- 91 (July 92-3T, 444- 6 (August 92- 4); ·
561- 2 (October 93- 4) , 612-4 (November 94- 6) , 665- 6 (December 113- 4) (1947); color
and chemical structure ; revie~
BIBLIOGR APHY.
W. C. Granville ; Amerr Ink Make r 26, No . 6, 29-31, 47, 49 (June 1948); color or gan ization in the Ostwald system (A straightforward account exce llent ly illustrated by
six fine figures , some i n full color)
w.
R. Gr een; Ame r. C inematographe r ~~ 392-3, 410-11 (1947); thirty years of
Technicolo r
D. R. Griffin, R. Hubbar d & G. ffald ; J . Opt . Soc . Amer . 37 , 546- 54 (1947) ;
sensitivity of the human eye to infrared r adiation
S. B. Grimson (to Cqlo r Research Corp., New Yo r k); U. S. Pat. 2,418, 345 (1947);
photography in additive color by the controlled utilization of chromatic
aberrations in lenses · ·
J. Gro ss et al; A.S.T.M. Bull. No . 1 5~, 73 (Aug. 1948) ; neasurement of transparency
of surface coatings
L. N. Hadley &.D. M. Dennison ; J. Opt . Soc . Ame r . 37, 451-65 (1947) ; r eflection and
transmission interference filters; I, theory
A. C. Hardy & F. L. vvurzburg, Jr.; J. Opt. Soc . Amer~ 38, 300- 7 (April 1948); c~~or
correction in color printing
P. W. Harris ; Miniature Camera Mag . 11, 92 , 94, 96- 8
technique fo r Ans cocolor film and Printon
.
(Jan.
1947); pr~ce,ssing
.
A. Ivanoff ; J. Opt . Soc. Amer. 37, 7~0-1 .(1947) ; i nfluence of accommodation on spherical aberration in the human eye; an attempt to i nte rpret night myopia
J. E. B. Jacobs, L. C. Jesty, R.· B. Mackenzie & A. E. Sarson ; J. Brit. Kinematograph
Soc . 10, 28- 36, No . 1 (Jan .-Feb. 1947); oolor te l evision
INDEX OF
SPECIAL
ARTICLES
No. 68 (Janua ry
Previous. i ndice s may be found in News Letters No . 34 (March ·
1941, for Nos . 1 to 34, October 1933 to 1941) ; No-.-44(November 1942), 1lo. 50 (Novembe r 1943) , !io . 58 (March 1945), No. 63
(January 1946),1lnd 1-fo .. 68 (Janua ry 1947).
1 9~7)
FP&VPC Color- Preference Study
Nour athar : The Sixth Art
Defective Colour Vision in Industry
(Phys . Soc . Colo:tr Group)
Researches on Colour Vision (Wright )
Resonance and Co lor (Godlove)
Bibliography
No . 69 (I.Iarch 1947)
Contempor ary Color Guide (Burris - Meyer)
Skin Lightening (D.F. Nealon)
Svriss Co l our Atlas (Granville)
Definition of Bsthet:ics (E. i.:urray )
Color Tenns in Painte r's Titles (Godlove)
Bibliography
I-S.C.C.
Noto 79
~VS
I
No. ~6
· May 1948)
{May 1947)
Principle s of Color and Color
. ~1ixing (Bustan<;>by) .
.
Bostrom Color-Vision Te·st~ (Rand)
On.ce · in a. Blue !,1oon
· ,.
Lum.i nescence (A, St r obl)
Fading ~~d Tendering (Y .hl. Waly et al )
~amellar Micelles (Sh~ppard and Geddes)
Helmholtz Line- Element · (Stiles)
Bibliography
•
No . 71
. November. 1948
16.
LETTER NO . 79
.
!
(July 1917)
A Fo rward Thinker: E. Q. Adams
V.G;J . Hurrison 1 s "Gloss" (Hunter)
Explaining the Atom (Hecht) .
Bibliography
Wilfr
Conrow (Nickerson)
Lovi nd .Color Standards ( J. T. R.An:dr ews )
1~ ssage from Fr. Ostwald
" Lie;hting Design (Moon a'nd Spencer)
Paint Power (Lenore Kent )
Bibliography
No. 77
(July 1948)
California Meeting
Introduction to Color (R. 11.- Evans)
Plochere Color System
Colorimetry and Artificial Daylight
(Gibson)
Gardner-Hunte r Instruments
Noc ~ (Se:_:Jtember 1947) · ·; ·
No. 78
A Hueful Talk t o You (Godlove)
Monet Mirror (Bittinger)
Bibliography
Pnris I.C.I. Meeting and Color
Te rminology (Judd)
I~ E. S • . Color Scales
Celadon, Color Name (Godl ove·)
Palestine Purp l e (Godlove)
Rock- Co lor Chart (Geologists) ·
Hi-Fashion Colors (Smedley)
Rahr Color-Count
Dye r s' Brig~tness (Godlove )
Bibliography
No . 73
(November 1 947)
ICI Questionnaire on Colorimetry
(Gibson)
Corrective Tr aining of Color ~lindness
Gardner-Hunter Appa r atus
·
Soil-Color Charts (Nickerson)
Color Perception and C~emical Structure (Godlove ; · Nicke r son) ·
Chemical and Color Terminology (Godlove)
~ibliography _ .
No. 74
(January 1948)
Spectro- Chr0me -and Frauds (Kl eeman)
Trolley-Color Ballot
The Chemists ' Revenge (Godlove)
Color Preferences (Guilford)
Colo r Harmo~r (Godlove )
· Bibliography
No , 75
(Uarch 1948 )
Decorating Livable Homes (Burris -1.ieyer)
I.E.S . Lighting llcndbook (Macbeth)
Retinal Structure and Colour (v~/illmer)
Colonel Eaton
Color in Early Civilizations (Godlove )
~
No. 79
-
(September 1948)
(November 1948)
Mrs. A. H. Munsell
1-l:P.
\~m.
H. Beck
···
History . of Ridgway
Jo~ Dewey on Barnes
Ch ' ing (Godlove)
Co l or Terminology (Physical Soc. Colour
Group ; Newhall )
. Ostwald System (Granville)
Foundations of Psychology
Celadons (Godlove)
Bibliography
Index