ri4 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 473 



A NEW COLOR SCHEME. 



Every student of botany, ornithology, or entomology, has 

 found the lack of any well-defined standard or credited no- 

 menclature of color a prolific source of trial and perplexity, 

 ■while to the common eye there is nothing but confusion in 

 our present methods of designating color. No stronger proof 

 of this is needed than some of the terms used to designate 

 fashionable colors, such as "crushed strawberry," " ashes of 

 roses," ''elephant's breath, "etc. What more absurd terms could 

 one easily choose to express an intelligible conception. This is 

 no doubt largely due to the fact that there has been no chan- 

 nel through which to introduce reform. It must be done 

 through those who deal largely in material where there is 

 frequent occasion to designate colors. The naturalist might 

 jBx his standards and nomenclature, as he has already done, 

 but the great world would go on just the same, ignoring 

 him and his little clique till the end of time. The physicist 

 may speculate and dogmatize on the theories of color and 

 reach admirable results, but find himself unable to alter the 

 nomenclature of either commerce or every-day life. Manu- 

 facturers, who depend upon the demands of trade, must pro- 

 vide what is called for in the marketer have their wares left 

 on their hands, and find themselves the losers thereby. The 

 ever changing fashions seem almost to necessitate the use of 

 new and striking names for things even themselves very 

 ancient. These facts leave little ground for hope that any 

 reform can be expected through the ordinary channels of 

 trade. 



It is very refreshiug, however, to find now and then a 

 man who, in the midst of commercial competition, is willing 

 to give some thought to the propagation of scientific truth. 

 About twelve or thirteen years since Mr. Milton Bradley of 

 Springfield, Mass., who was engaged in the manufacture of 

 kindergarten supplies, conceived the idea of reducing the mak- 

 ing of colored papers to some method which would be practical 

 and at the same time sufficiently accurate to be of value as a 

 means of education. At my suggestion the solar spectrum 

 was taken as the basis of his scheme. The difficulty of re- 

 producing the beautiful colors of the spectrum in pigments 

 seemed at first almost insurmountable, but after long exper- 

 iment, and the expenditure of much time and money, it was 

 found that colors could be produced in papers which fairly 

 approximate the colors of the spectrum. 



The scheme adopted by Mr. Bradley contains six standard 

 colors, viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet — colors 

 generally recognized and readily distinguished in the solar 

 spectrum. It was found that, combining these colors in the 

 Maxwell disks, a neutral grey could be produced, while with 

 a less number this would be impossible. These, together 

 with a white and a black, constitute the basis of the system; 

 If a disk of one of these standard colors be placed upon the 

 wheel together with a white disk, and the proportion of the 

 exposed surfaces of the two disks varied, a number of modi- 

 fications of the color varying from the standard to pure 

 white will be obtained. These are called tints. Similar 

 combinations of the standards with black produce what are 

 called shades. Each of the standard colors is treated in the 

 same manner. If a disk a little larger than the regular size 

 'with a border graduated into 100 degrees, be placed behind 

 the disks to be used in combination, the exact proportion of 

 each disk can be determined. The first letter of each color 

 is used as its symbol, except that for black N. (niger) is used to 

 avoid ihe repetition of B. If we combine red and black in 

 equal proportions, thus, 11.50 N.50, we shall get a shade of 

 red. We may designate this as red shade No. 1. In a sim- 



ilar way each color would be treated. Each may be com- 

 bined with other colors and the symbols written in a similar 

 manner. Red and orange, the former predominating, would 

 be called orange red, written O.R. A given combination of 

 these two colors would be expressed by 0.25 R.75. This 

 would in turn have its tints and shades. When the propor- 

 tions are not needed, R.T., R.S., O.Y., G.B.S., would very 

 simply indicate red tint, red shade, orange yellow, green 

 blue shade, respectively. Thus simply is the eye trained to 

 discern the components of each hue by the aid of the sym- 

 bols. The simplicity of the system and surpassing beauty 

 and number of hues obtained is striking. 



A large series of papers manufactured according to this 

 scheme is already used in kindergartens and many primary 

 schools. One manufacturing firm proposes to use the wheel 

 and disks in connection with the coloring of textile fabrics. 

 The disks are also used in ordering new colors from the fac- 

 tory, where a duplicate set of the disks is used to translate 

 the symbol into the visible effect desired. Architects and 

 artisans find the scheme convenient in studying the effect of 

 adjacent colors. Indeed, a system of color harmonies has 

 already been partly elaborated with this scheme as its basis. 



The next most important step is for the physicists to es- 

 tablish the location of these six colors within certain limits 

 of wave-lengths, and then secure some material in which the 

 standard color can be permanently preserved for comparison. 

 What a saving of confusion in the use of color names is 

 thus gained we are hardly able to realize. The following 

 quotation from a pamphlet issued by the Milton Bradley 

 Company, explaining the scheme, will indicate one of the 

 many applications of the scheme: — 



"A careful study of these representative combinations of 

 disks will suggest numerous possibilities not mentioned here. 

 One of these is the giving of exact and definite names in the 

 terms of our standards to the common colors. For example, 

 it is well known that under the same name different manu- 

 facturers make pigments varying very largely in color. 



" If, having a small tablet of millboard or other suitable 

 substance painted with an even coat of Windsor & Newton's 

 light red tube color, we match the color with our disks, we 

 find the nomenclature to be 0.24, N.76; while a German 

 color with the same name gives 0.18, N.82, both being shades 

 of orange, although the German color is much darker than 

 the other. 



" The same test with two tubes of cinnabar green gives 

 Windsor & Newton's, Y.14, G.IU, N.74*; the German, Y.12J, 

 G.ll, W.2, N.74J, the first being a shade of a green yellow, 

 and the second a broken green yellow ; the shade contains 

 black with the yellow and green, and the broken color has 

 both black and white. 



" In Windsor & Newton's chrome yellow we have 0.29, 

 Y.71; the German, 0.35, Y.45, N.20; the first a pure orange 

 yellow, and the second a shade of a much more orange yel- 

 low. 



"The following analysis of some other common colors 

 may be interesting, as showing how simple and practical our 

 nomenclature is: — 



"Chinese vermillion — R.77, 0.23. 



"Yellow ochre — 0.24, Y.24, N.52. 



"Indian red— R.7i 0.17*, N.75. 



" Emerald green — G.63, B.14J, N.22J. 



" Deep cadmium yellow — R.5*, 0.67, Y.20. 



" Chrome green, No. 2 — G.16-;, Y.5, N.78i." 



J. H. PiLLSBUEY. 



Smith College, Feb. 18. 



