Color Standards and Color Nomenclature With fifty-three colored plates and eleven hundred and fifteen named colors

Part 5

Chapter 53,083 wordsPublic domain

THE FOLLOWING COLORS REPRESENTED IN THE OLD "NOMENCLATURE OF COLORS" (1886) CANNOT BE MATCHED BY COLORS IN THE PRESENT WORK. THEY ARE INTERMEDIATES, EITHER AS TO HUE OR TONE (SOMETIMES BOTH), AND WOULD FALL IN UNCOLORED SPACES, AS INDICATED BY THE NUMERALS AND LETTERS APPENDED TO EACH:—

_Azure Blue_ = 48 _a_ (see Plates VIII and IX). _Broccoli Brown:_ Between 17′′′ _k_ and 17′′′′ _i_ (see Plates XL and XLVI). _Buff_ = 18′′ _d_ (see Plates III and IV). _Burnt Carmine_ = 71 _i_ (Plate XII). _Canary Yellow:_ Between 23 _b_ and 21′ _b_ (see Plates IV and XVI). _Chinese Orange_ = 12 _h_ (see Plates II and III). _Chrome Yellow_ = 20 _a_ (Plate IV). _Cobalt Blue_ = 48 slightly dull (see Plates VIII and IX). _Crimson_ = 1 _j_ (Plate I). _French Blue_ = 52 _h_ (Plate IX). _Gallstone Yellow_ = 19′ _h_ (Plate XVI). _Gamboge Yellow_ = 20, slightly dull, or 21, slightly dull (Plate IV). _Geranium Red_ = 3 _a_ (Plate I). _Heliotrope Purple:_ Between 65′′′ _b_ and 65′′′′ _b_ (see Plates XLIV and L). _Indian Yellow_ = 18 _h_ or 18 slightly dull (Plate III). This color and Saffron Yellow are practically identical in many copies of the old "Nomenclature." _Lake Red_ = 72 _h_ (Plate XII). _Maroon Purple_ = 72′ _i_ (Plate XXVI). _Ochraceous_ = 16′ _h_ (Plate XV). _Ochraceous-Rufous_ = 12′ _h_ (see Plates XIV and XV). _Ochre Yellow_ = 18′ (see Plates XV and XVI). _Orange-Ochraceous_ = 16 _h_ (Plate III). _Orange Vermilion_ = 4, dull (Plate I). _Orpiment Orange_ = 11 _h_ (Plate II). _Peach-blossom Pink_ = 1 _e_ (Plate I). _Poppy Red:_ between 3 and 5 _h_ (Plate I). _Saffron Yellow_ = 18 (see Plates III and IV). _Saturn Red_ = 11 _a_ (Plate II). _Scarlet Vermilion_ = 4, dull (Plate I). _Sevres Blue_ = 46 _h_ (Plate VIII). _Solferino_ = 67 _h_ (Plate XII). _Tawny-Ochraceous_ = 14′ _h_ (Plate XV). _Turquoise Blue_ = 44 _b_ (Plate XX). _Verditer Blue:_ Between 43′ and 43′′ _b_ (see Plates XX and XXXIV). _Vermilion:_ Between 3 and 3′ (see Plates I and XIII). _Violet_ = 61 _h_ (Plate XI). _Wine Purple_ = 70 _h_ (Plate XXVI).

A FEW OF THE MODERN BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT OF COLOR WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THIS WORK HAS FOUND MOST USEFUL

_Bradley, Milton_, author of "Color in the Schoolroom" and "Color in the Kindergarden."—Elementary Color. With an Introduction by Henry Lafavour, Ph. D., Professor of Physics, Williams College. Milton Bradley and Co., Springfield, Mass. [1895]. Small 8vo., pp. [i]-iv, [1]-128; colored frontispiece ("miniature color charts made from the Bradley educational colored papers," showing 126 unnamed colors) and numerous figures in text.

The present writer frankly and gratefully acknowledges that he has learned more, and learned it more easily, from this little book, which is a model of conciseness and perspicuity, than from careful study of more elaborate and authoritative works on the subject. It is therefore most heartily recommended to the student as a preliminary, at least, to the study of more technical works on color.

_Bradley, Milton._—The Evolution of a Practical System of Color Education based on Spectrum Standards. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass. Pamphlet, 8vo., pp. 8.

_Bradley, Milton._—A Few Practical Suggestions relating to Color Standards and the Present Status of Elementary Color Instruction in the United States. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass. Pamphlet, small 8vo., pp. 16.

_Bradley, Milton._—Some Criticisms of Popular Color Definitions, and Suggestions for a Better Color Nomenclature. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass., 1898. Pamphlet, 12mo., pp. 15.

_Bradley, Milton._—The Bradley Color Scheme, with Suggestions to Teachers. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass. Pamphlet, 12mo., pp. 45.

_Church, A. H., F. R. S._, etc., Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts in London.—The Chemistry of Paints and Painting. Third edition, revised and enlarged. London: Seeley and Co. Small 8vo., pp. [i-vii] viii-xx, 1-355. An invaluable work which should be consulted by every painter.

_Hurst, George H., F. C. S._, etc.—Colour: A Handbook of the Theory of Colour. With ten coloured plates and seventy-two illustrations. London: Scott, Greenwood & Co., 1900., 8vo., 160 pp.

_Rood, Ogden N._—Students' Text-book of Color; or Modern Chromatics, with applications to Art and Industry. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903. Small 8vo., pp. [i-v] vi-viii, [9] 10-329; 1 colored plate (frontispiece) and 130 original illustrations.

(One of the best technical works on the physics of color.)

_Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes._—Color Problems. A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color. With one hundred and seventeen colored plates. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, London and Bombay. 1903. Small 8vo., pp., [i-vi] vii-xv, [1-2] 3-137.

The colored plates of this excellent work illustrate the physics and psychology of color, color harmonies, and kindred subjects, but have no relation to color nomenclature.

_Jorgensen, Charles Julius._—The Mastery of Color. A simple and perfect color system, based upon the spectral colors, for educational and practical use in the Arts and Crafts. Published by the Author. Milwaukee, 1906. 8vo., 2 vols., one of text, the other of 22 loose colored plates contained in double box.

An exceedingly useful work for artists and decorators, but not adapted to the needs of science. The technical execution of the plates is exquisite and the colors very fine.

FOOTNOTES

The subject of color and color nomenclature discussed on pages 15-58. Plates i-x, inclusive, represent 186 named colors, hand-painted (stencilled).

[2] Titles of several books on the subject which are especially recommended to the lay student of chromatology are given at the end of this text.

[3] See _Science_, June 9, 1893, and _Nature_, Vol. LII, No. 1347, Aug. 22, 1895, pp. 390-392.

[4] According to Aubert more than 1000 hues are distinguishable in the spectrum, though among them all the hues between violet and red are wanting.

[5] That is to say, the practical limit for pictorial representation of the colors in their various modifications.

[6] Milton Bradley: Elementary Color, p. 18.

[7] See colored figure on frontispiece.

[8] See the colored figure on the frontispiece of this work, which clearly illustrates this method of color measurement. Larger disks of spectrum red, green, and violet are interlocked and adjusted so that they present, respectively, 32, 42, and 26 per cent. of the circumference; superimposed on these is a single smaller disk of neutral gray, and on this two still smaller disks of black and white, the former occupying 79, the latter 21, per cent. of the area. The result of this combination of colors, when the disks are rapidly revolved, is that the entire surface becomes a uniform neutral gray precisely like the middle disk, which blends so completely with the color inside and outside its limits that no trace of division can be detected. Hence, neutral gray equals a combination of red 32, green 42, and violet 26 per cent., and also equals a combination of black 79 and white 21 per cent. As further illustrating the point, it may be mentioned that not only does the above-mentioned combination of the three primary colors equal neutral gray but so also does the combination of any color ("secondary" or "tertiary" as well as primary) with its complementary, though the darkness or lightness of the gray varies somewhat, as the following table shows:

Spectrum Color. Complementary Color. Equivalent Gray.

Name. Per Cent. Per Cent. Composition. Black. White.

Red 44 56 Blue 41 + Green 59. 72.5 27.5 Orange 28.5 71.5 Blue 51.5 + Green 48.5. 69 31 Yellow 33 67 Blue 60.5 + Violet 39.5. 64 36 Green 51 49 Red 57.5 + Violet 42.5. 73 27 Blue 64 36 Yellow 82 + Orange 18. 62 37 Violet 62.5 37.5 Yellow 69 + Green 31. 61.5 38.5

[9] The number is doubled so that every other one represents an intermediate hue not shown in color.

[10] Owing to the circumstance that spectrum orange does not, at least when mixed with gray, fairly represent a medium hue between red and orange, being much nearer the former, a hue much near to yellow (yellow-orange, No. 15) has been selected.

[11] For satisfactory color-wheel work it is necessary to discard practically all the so-called artists' colors, as being much too dull to even approximately represent the colors of the spectrum, and to substitute carefully selected aniline or coal-tar dyes, of which, fortunately, there is a very large number of remarkable purity of hue. Indeed, the work of most color-physicists is vitiated by their use of such crude colors as vermilion, carmine, scarlet-lake, chrome yellow, emerald green, Prussian blue, etc. (For a list of dyes and pigments used in preparing the Maxwell disks representing the thirty-six colors of the chromatic scale, see pages 26, 27.)

[12] In fixing the exact position or wave-length of the spectrum colors considerable latitude is allowable, the element of "personal equation"—that is, difference in the conception of different persons as to just where the reddest red, greenest green, etc., are located, accounting for the considerable disagreement among chromatologists as to the wave-lengths. The following table, showing the average, mean, and extreme wave-length of each of the spectrum colors as given by nine or more authorities together with those of the present work (as determined by Dr. P. G. Nutting, Associate Physicist of the U. S. Bureau of Standards) is of interest in this connection:

Average Extremes Mean This work. of 9-12 of 9-12 of 9-12 authorities. authorities. authorities.

Red 644 6770 6440-7028 6734 (10) Orange 598 ± 2 6074 5892-6300 6096 (9) Yellow 577 ± 1 5786 5640-5850 5745 (10) Green 520 ± 10 5235 5050-5335 5193 (11) Blue 473 ± 3 4738 4520-4861 4680 (12) Violet 410 4176 4050-4330 4190 (10)

From this table it will be seen that the red of this work is appreciably more orange than that of others, the orange slightly more yellowish, and the violet a little less bluish than the average; but the author is assured by Dr. Nutting that these standards are exceptionally accurate.

[13] The percentages are given in tables on pages 23 and 25.

[14] That is to say, theoretically. Unfortunately it seems to be beyond the colorists' skill to reproduce true shades of the pure colors, all showing a more or less decided admixture of gray, resulting in a series of broken or dull shades. (See pages 23 and 24.)

[15] Although only 1115 different colors are actually shown on the plates the system is really equivalent to the presentation of considerably more than 4000 distinguishable and designatable colors.

[16] The Theory of Color (American edition, 1876), p. 99.

[17] In the present work the possibility of variation between different copies is wholly eliminated by a very different process of reproduction. Each color, for the entire edition, is painted uniformly on large sheets of paper from a single mixture of pigments, these sheets being then cut into the small squares which represent the colors on the plates.

[18] See Rood: Modern Chromatics, pages 50-52.

[19] Some criticisms of Popular Color Definitions and Suggestions for a better Color Nomenclature. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass. (Small pamphlet of 15 pages).

[20] Milton Bradley: Elementary Color, p. 25.

[21] Exception has been taken in a recent work ("A Color Notation," by A. H. Munsell) to the use of the term tone in this connection, on the ground that its proper use belongs to music, and the term _value_ is substituted. The same line of reasoning would, however, certainly require the discarding of _chromatic scale_ as a term of music nomenclature, since its derivation is clearly from color (chroma). Furthermore, the word "value" is even more elastic in its application than tone, and, all things considered, the present writer, at least, fails to see that any improvement is made by the proposed change.

[22] The term _chromatic scale_ has unfortunately been appropriated for a very different use (in music); nevertheless it is strictly correct in the present sense while in the other it is not, though firmly established by long usage. The term _spectrum scale_ is not adequate, as a substitute, because the spectrum series of colors is incomplete through absence of the hues connecting violet with red, which are necessary to show the full scale of pure colors and hues.

[23] The distinctions of color or hue diminishing in proportion to the increased admixture of gray, each alternate color or hue, with its scale (vertical) of tones, is omitted from the third and fourth series; while in the fifth the color differentiation is so greatly reduced that only the six spectrum colors (dulled by admixture of 95.5 per cent. of neutral gray), together with purple (the intermediate between violet and red) are given; a yellow orange hue being substituted for spectrum orange because it is more exactly intermediate in hue between red and yellow.

[24] J. J. Müller found that a mixture of the orange and violet rays of the spectrum produced a whitish red (Rood, "Modern Chromatics," p. 129). The author of the present work, without being at the time aware of this, produced an absolutely pure red (but of reduced intensity) by mixture of either orange and violet (orange 63.5, violet 36.5 per cent. = red 85 + white 15 per cent.), or from orange and the violet-red which is complementary to green (violet-red 51, orange 49 per cent.), the latter equaling red 89 + white 11 per cent; the mixtures being made on a color-wheel with Maxwell disks representing the pure colors of the present work. The red resulting from either of these mixtures on the color-wheel is far purer than the blue resulting from mixture of green and violet, and incomparably more so than the yellow resulting from mixture of either red and green or orange and green. Consequently, if the same results would come from mixing orange and violet light, it is difficult to understand how red can be a primary color _according to the accepted definition_.

[25] Rood: Modern Chromatics, p. 34.

With the single exception of Vanderpoel (Color Problems, p. 28, plates 3, 4, where yellow is given first in order of luminosity) all authorities on color-physics that I have been able to consult very singularly ignore yellow entirely in their treatment of the subject of luminosity.

[26] All quotations here are from Milton Bradley's "Elementary Color," except where otherwise noted.

[27] As determined by Dr. P. G. Nutting, Associate Physicist, U. S. Bureau of Standards.

[28] See Rood, Modern Chromatics, pages 34, 35.

[29] The aniline or coal-tar dyes named are all of the manufacture of Dr. G. Grübler and Co., Leipzig, Germany, unless otherwise stated. (See Preface, page ii.)

CAUTION!!!

DO NOT EXPOSE THESE PLATES TO THE LIGHT FOR A LONGER TIME THAN IS NECESSARY.

The pigments used in the preparation of these Plates are the most durable known, those which have been proven unstable having been, as far as possible, discarded. The latter include carmine and other cochineal lakes, colors of vegetable origin (as gamboge, violet carmine, indigo, etc.), and most of the aniline or coal tar dyes, though among the last are a considerable number which are really more permanent than several colors habitually used by artists. Certain colors in this work could not, however, possibly be reproduced except by the employment of pigments which are more or less sensitive to _prolonged exposure_ to light, and hence this caution not to expose the plates unnecessarily.

(See _Church_: "The Chemistry of Paints and Painting," third edition, pages 257-263.)

_Plate I_

1 RED 3 O-R. 5 OO-R.

_f_ Hermosa Pink La France Pink Shrimp Pink _d_ Eosine Pink *Geranium Pink Strawberry Pink _b_ Begonia Rose Rose Doree Peach Red Spectrum Red Scarlet-Red *Scarlet _i_ *Carmine Nopal Red Brazil Red _k_ Ox-blood Red Garnet Brown Morocco Red _m_ Victoria Lake *Maroon *Claret Brown

_Plate II_

7 R-O. 9 OR-O. 11 ORANGE

_f_ Safrano Pink Orient Pink Orange-Pink _d_ Grenadine Pink Bittersweet Pink Light Salmon-Orange _b_ Grenadine Bittersweet Orange Salmon-Orange Grenadine Red *Flame Scarlet *Orange Chrome _i_ English Red Mars Orange *Orange-Rufous _k_ Mahogany Red *Burnt Sienna Sanford's Brown _m_ *Bay *Chestnut Auburn

_Plate III_

13 OY-O. 15 Y-O. 17 O-Y.

_f_ Capucine Buff Pale Yellow-Orange Pale Orange-Yellow _d_ Capucine Orange *Orange-Buff Light Orange-Yellow _b_ Mikado Orange Capucine Yellow *Deep Chrome *Cadmium Orange *Orange *Cadmium Yellow _i_ Xanthine Orange Mars Yellow *Raw Sienna _k_ Amber Brown Sudan Brown Antique Brown _m_ Argus Brown Brussels Brown *Raw Umber

_Plate IV_

19 YO-Y. 21 O-YY. 23 YELLOW

_f_ *Maize Yellow Baryta Yellow Martius Yellow _d_ *Buff-Yellow Pinard Yellow Picnic Yellow _b_ Apricot Yellow Empire Yellow Pale Lemon Yellow Light Cadmium Lemon Chrome *Lemon Yellow _i_ Aniline Yellow Sulphine Yellow Pyrite Yellow _k_ Orange-Citrine Citrine Warbler Green _m_ Medal Bronze Dark Citrine *Olive-Green

_Plate V_

25 YG-Y. 27 G-Y. 29 GG-Y.

_f_ *Sulphur Yellow Pale Green-Yellow Pale Viridine Yellow _d_ Pale Greenish Yellow Light Green-Yellow Light Viridine Yellow _b_ Light Greenish Yellow Green-Yellow Viridine Yellow Greenish Yellow Bright Green-Yellow Neva Green _i_ Oil Yellow Javel Green Cosse Green _k_ Yellowish Oil Green *Oil Green Lettuce Green _m_ Calla Green Cerro Green Spinach Green

_Plate VI_

31 Y-G. 33 GY-G. 35 GREEN

_f_ Pale Yellow-Green Light Viridine Green Pale Cendre Green _d_ Light Yellow-Green Viridine Green Light Cendre Green _b_ Clear Yellow-Green Vanderpoel's Green Cendre Green Yellow-Green Night Green *Emerald Green _i_ Calliste Green Scheele's Green Peacock Green _k_ *Parrot Green *Grass Green Meadow Green _m_ Cedar Green Cossack Green Antique Green

_Plate VII_

37 GB-G. 39 B-G. 41 BB-G.

_f_ Opaline Green Pale Blue-Green Pale Turquoise Green _d_ Neuvider Green Light Blue-Green Turquoise Green _b_ Chrysoprase Green Tyrolite Green Venice Green Vivid Green Skobeloff Green Benzol Green _i_ *Viridian Green Guinea Green Ethyl Green _k_ Dark Viridian Green Wall Green Sorrento Green _m_ Diamine Green Anthracene Green *Myrtle Green

_Plate VIII_

43 G-B. 45 BG-B. 47 G-BB.

_f_ Beryl Blue *Pale Blue (Ethyl Blue) Pallid Methyl Blue _d_ Calamine Blue Pale Cerulean Blue Pale Methyl Blue _b_ Cendre Blue Light Cerulean Blue Light Methyl Blue Italian Blue *Cerulean Blue Methyl Blue _i_ Peacock Blue Oxide Blue Leitch's Blue _k_ Patent Blue *Antwerp Blue *Paris Blue _m_ Blackish Green-Blue *Marine Blue *Berlin Blue

_Plate IX_

49 BLUE 51 BV-B. 53 V-B.

_f_ Pale Mazarine Blue Pale Amparo Blue Pallid Violet-Blue _d_ Mazarine Blue Light Amparo Blue Pale Violet-Blue _b_ Salvia Blue Amparo Blue Light Violet-Blue Spectrum Blue Bradley's Blue Phenyl Blue _i_ *Ultramarine Blue Lyons Blue *Smalt Blue _k_ Rood's Blue Helvetia Blue Hay's Blue _m_ Prussian Blue *Cyanine Blue Azurite Blue

_Plate X_

55 B-V. 57 VB-V. 59 VIOLET

_f_ Pallid Blue-Violet Pallid Bluish Violet Pallid Violet _d_ Pale Blue-Violet Pale Bluish Violet Pale Violet _b_ Light Blue-Violet Light Bluish Violet Light Violet Blue-Violet Bluish Violet Spectrum Violet _i_ Deep Blue-Violet Violet Ultramarine *Royal Purple _k_ Hyacinth Blue Roslyn Blue Dark Violet _m_ Dark Aniline Blue Dark Bluish Violet Blackish Violet

_Plate XI_

61 VR-V. 63 R-V. 65 RR-V.

_f_ Pale Hortense Violet Pale Amparo Purple Phlox Pink _d_ Light Hortense Violet Light Amparo Purple Light Phlox Purple _b_ Hortense Violet Amparo Purple *Phlox Purple Amethyst Violet Violet-Purple Purple (true) _i_ Hyacinth Violet Pansy Violet Rood's Violet _k_ Mulberry Purple Cotinga Purple Raisin Purple _m_ Fluorite Violet *Prune Purple Blackish Purple

_Plate XII_

67 V-R. 69 RV-R. 71 V-RR.

_f_ Mallow Pink Pale Amaranth Pink *Rose Pink _d_ Light Mallow Purple Amaranth Pink Deep Rose-Pink _b_ Mallow Purple Tyrian Pink Rose Color Rhodamine Purple Tyrian Rose *Rose Red _i_ *Aster Purple Amaranth Purple *Pomegranate Purple _k_ *Dahlia Purple *Pansy Purple Bordeaux _m_ Blackish Red-Purple Violet Carmine Burnt Lake

_Plate XIII_

1′ RED 3′ O-R. 5′ OO-R.