io6 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 2, 1886 



Previously it had been known as the Senate House 

 Examination, and this name continued long afterwards 

 and for more than thirty years was still printed as a head- 

 ing to the papers set. It was only as a means of distin- 

 guishing it from the Classical and other newer Triposes 

 that the name Mathematical Tripos gradually came into 

 use. By the regulations which took effect in 1828 a 

 totally distinct series of papers were set to the poll-men, 

 who then formed the fifth and sixth classes. The fiction 

 of regarding the poll-list as a continuation of the list of 

 mathematical honours still lingered till 1858, the names 

 being arranged in order of merit in four classes called 

 the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh ; the fourth class 

 being in theory supposed to be the next class to that 

 of the junior optimes. 



( To ie conliniicd. ) 



THE COLOURS OF METALS AND ALLOYS^ 



THIS lecture is published by request, but the author 

 fears that, dealing as it does with the colours of 

 metals, such interest as it may have possessed when 

 delivered will be greatly diminished in the absence of the 

 experiments and diagrams by which it was illustrated. 



I begin with no ordinary pleasure the work which has 

 been intrusted to me by the Council of the British Associa- 

 tion. It is nearly twenty years since this series of lec- 

 tures was established. The first, on " Matter and Force," 

 was delivered at Dundee by a brilliant experimenter and 

 one of the most eloquent living exponents of science ; it 

 was followed, at Norwich, by a lecture by Prof. Huxley, 

 to whom the nation owes a deep debt of gratitude for his 

 intense sympathy with all who are seeking to widen the 

 bounds of scientific knowledge- to be whose colleague 

 in one of the most important scientific schools of the 

 country is my great good fortune. These lecturers were 

 succeeded by other eminent men, among whom may be 

 mentioned Spottiswoode, Bramwell, and Lubbock. The 

 object of the lectures is to diffuse a knowledge of the 

 operations uf Nature, and to add to the number of those 

 who rejoice in her works. Many, therefore, who have 

 spoken to audiences similar to this, have appealed to 

 natural phenomena ; and instead of talking to you about 

 the colour of metals, I also should have liked to dwell on 

 the colour of the sea and sky, but Ruskin's works are, I 

 know, often in your hands, and he has told you once for 

 all of the colour of clouds that "there is not a moment of 

 any day of our lives when Nature is not producing scene 

 after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and 

 working still upon such exquisite and constant principles 

 of the most perfect beauty that it is quite certain it is all 



.1 stoole before Mr. Proctours " and to dispute with the "eldest son" (the 

 foremost of the questionisis), and afterwards with '* the father " (a graduate 

 of the College to wh.ch the "eldest son" belonged, representing the pa- 

 ternal character of the College). At this time ihe only " Tripos " was the 

 three-legged stool on which the Bachelor sat. A century later this Bachelor 

 seems to have become a sort of licensed buffoon, and to have been called 

 '* Mr. Tripos," just as a president is sometimes referred to as " the Chair," 

 or a judge as " the Bench." During the 120 years in which the name Tnpos 

 or Tripus indicated a personage there are frequent allusions to the humorous 

 orations delivered in the schools by those who filled this office. These were 

 known as Tripos speeches. It is probable that Mr. rr.pos ceased to take 

 part in the arguments in the schools between 1730 and 1750. just about the 

 time when the Senate House examination was originating. The Tripos 

 speeches were then replaced by copies of Latin verses, which were circulated 

 on the admission days. These were called Tripos verses. About 1747 the 

 Moderators began the custom of printing Honour lists en the back of the 

 Tripos verses. Thus the list of Honours in the Senate House examination 

 came to be called the Tripos list, so that a man's name was said to stand in 

 such a place in the Tripos of his year, i.e. up n the back of the Tripos 

 verses. And, la-Stly, the name was transferred from the list to the examination, 

 the results of which were published in the list. This account is abridged 

 from Wordsworth's Sc/ioice AcaticmictB, chap. ii. Wordsworth concludes : 

 " Thus, step by step, we have traced the word Tri/>os, passing in signification, 

 Proteus-like, from a thing of wood {othn trunciis) to a man, from a man to a 

 speech, from a speech t . two sets of verses, from verses to a sheet of coarse 

 foolscap paper, from a paper to a list of names, and from a list of names to 



sys 



of < 



A Lecture delivered on September ^ by Prof. W. Chandler Roberts- 

 Austen, F.R.S.. to the Operative Classes in the Town Hall of Birmingham, 

 eting of the British Association. 



done for us, and intended for our perpetual pleasure." ' 

 The metallurgist, however, cannot speak with authority 

 on themes such as these ; and I have therefore selected 

 a subject which will, I believe, enable me to bring before 

 you important truths affecting a wide range of industrial 

 operations, and at the same time to sustain the true 

 function of art by pointing to the direction in which we 

 may have increased pleasure in things that constitute our 

 most ordinary possessions, and which we use in daily life. 

 First permit me to explain that I intend to include under 

 the title of tlie lecture any facts which are, in my opinion, 

 connected with the colours of metals and alloys, whether 

 natural to them or produced by artifice, as well as a brief 

 examination of the influence which the colours of metals 

 appear to have exerted on the history of science. 



I propose to begin at what will appear to be a some- 

 what remote starting-point. We say that copper is red, 

 gold yellow, and silver white, but it is by no means cer- 

 tain that the early races of the world had any very clear 

 perception of the difierence between these several metallic 

 colours. With regard to early Hebrew and Greek civilisa- 

 tion, Mr. Gladstone has expressed his belief that the 

 colour-sense — that is the power of recognising colour and 

 distinguishing it from mere brightness or darkness — was 

 imperfectly developed, and he considers that " the start- 

 ing-point is absolute blindness to colour in the primitive 

 man," and he urges that the sense of colour has been 

 gradually developed " until it has now become a familiar 

 and unquestioned part of our inheritance " He adds : 

 " Perhaps one of the most significant relics of the older 

 state of things is to be found in the preference (known to 

 the manufacturing world) of the uncivilised nations for 

 strong and, what is called in the spontaneous poetry of 

 trading phrases, loud colour." - 



Dr. Magnus holds the view that the colour-sense in 

 man has undergone a great improvement within the last 

 2000 years, and Prof. Haeckel supports this speculation, 

 but it is opposed by Romanes, who has favoured me with 

 some observations on the subject, in view of this lecture ; 

 and it seems to me strange, if savage nations are really 

 deficient in the sense of colour, that the use of such 

 colours as they can get in metals and fabrics, blended, for 

 instance, in a war-club or a pipe-stem, should be so 

 thoroughly " understood " and so discriminatingly em- 

 ployed as we sometimes find them to be. It may further 

 be observed that primitive man may even have derived 

 from his more remote ancestry some power of being influ- 

 enced by colour, and we are told that the attraction which 

 gorgeous colouring in flowers has for birds and insects, 

 and which colour generally possesses for our nearer 

 ancestors, has been of great importance in the origin of 

 species, and in the maintenance of organic life. 



No doubt, in ancient times, there was much confusion 

 between mere brightness and colour, such as is evident in 

 the beautiful sentence in which St. Augustine '■' says : " For 

 this qrieen of co/ou?-s, ihe light, bathing all which we 

 behold, wherever I am through the day, gliding by me in 

 varied forms, soothes me when engaged on other things 

 and not observing her." If, however, it were proved 

 that the power of distinguishing the colour of metals 

 was not widely diffused among the Egyptians, He- 

 brews, and Greeks, it is at least certain that 

 there were individuals of these nations to whom, 

 in very early times, the colour of metals was all-im- 

 portant ; and although they may have confused different 

 precious stones under generic names, they certainly 

 appreciated their various colours, and knew, moreover, 

 that by fusing sand with the addition of a small quantity 

 of certain minerals, they could produce artificial gems of 

 varied tints. 



J '* Modern Painters," vol. i. part 2, p. 201, 1851. 

 ^ Nineteenth Centitry, p. 367, 1877. 



3 "Confessionsof St. Augustine." Edition edited by E. B Pusey, D.D. 

 (p. ="). 



