THEORY OF COLORS. 



colors are combined, and assuming that wjhich is least intense among them, 

 combine with it the proportion of the other two, which is necessary to produce 

 white, the resulting tint will be such as would be produced by the balance of 

 the remaining colors diluted by the resulting white. 



By following out this reasoning, it will be seen how the infinite variety of 

 tints of color may be produced by the simple component colors, red, yellow, 

 and blue, existing in different degrees of intensity. 



The color called black is produced by the absence of all light, and is, in fact, 

 a name for absolute darkness. If it were possible to find a substance abso- 

 lutely incapable of reflecting any light to the eye, or what is the same, of ab- 

 sorbing all the light which falls upon it, such substance would appear absolute- 

 ly black. But as no substance in nature is, on the one hand, capable of reflect- 

 ing all the light which falls upon it, so, on the other hand, no substance in na- 

 ture is capable of absorbing all the light that falls upon it. If we take the 

 blackest known substance and throw upon it strongly-condensed light, it will 

 become distinctly visible to the eye by a small portion of light which it will 

 reflect, which will make it appear of a gray color, or faint white. It appears, 

 then, that objects which are popularly termed black, are, in fact, faintly white. 

 A true black would be an object having no color at all. 



Experiments made on finely-divided substances have proved that there is no 

 substance absolutely opaque. The most dense substances known, and those 

 that are, apparently, most impervious to light, are found, when cut into leaves 

 or filaments sufficiently thin, to be transparent ; but the light which goes through 

 them is always of a tint contrary to that which they reflect. Thus if an object 

 appears to the eye to be of a yellow color, we know that the reason is that it 

 reflects to the eye yellow light. What, then, becomes, it may be asked, of the 

 red and the blue components of the solar light which falls upon it ? If we ob- 

 tain a shaving of the body sufficiently thin, and look behind it, we shall find 

 that it will appear of a color composed of the red and blue ; that is, it trans- 

 mits through it the colors which it fails to reflect. 



Hence it has been inferred that the absorption of light which takes place in 

 colored bodies is effected, not immediately on their surface, but at some defi- 

 nite depth within their dimensions, and that such portion of the compound so- 

 lar light that falls upon it, as is not reflected, passes successively through la- 

 mina, one within another, each of which absorbs a portion of it, until, at length, 

 it is altogether lost. 



As heat is, by some means not clearly known to us, connected with light, we 

 have, in these circumstances, a clear explanation of the fact, that more heat is 

 absorbed by bodies of a dark color than by those of a light color. In general 

 the lighter the color the greater the proportion is of the reflected light, and the 

 darker the color the less the proportion is. The greater the proportion of 

 light that is absorbed the greater will be the proportion of the heat which at- 

 tends that light. Hence it follows that, as dark colors absorb more heat than 

 light ones, and as black absorbs the most of all, dark colors are, in gener- 

 al, warm, and black the most so. If two pieces of cloth be thrown upon 

 snow, one black and the other white, the black will sink through it, melting 

 the snow under it, before the other penetrates into it perceptibly. 



Hence, dark-colored cloths are most suitable in cold weather, and light-col- 

 ored in warm weather. 



After all that has been explained, it will be scarcely necessary to say that 

 the sense in which color is commonly understood to be a quality of bodies, is 

 incorrect, and, strictly speaking, it is true, although it may sound paradoxical 

 to say that leaves are not green, and that the sky is not blue. The green and 

 the blue colors belong, properly speaking, not to the objects which appear to 



