CHAPTER V.

Standard White Light.

The colour of a substance is determined by the ray composition of the light it reflects, or transmits to the vision, the colour would therefore vary with every change in the ray proportions of the incident light; it follows that constancy in colour measurement can only be obtained by a colourless light. Up to the present diffused daylight is the only light which complies with the condition of ray equality.

The absolute equality of the six spectrum colours may be difficult to establish in any light, and their constancy in equivalence under varying light intensities may be open to argument. But, as everyday work is carried on mainly under daylight conditions, and as the vision is the final arbiter for colour work, theoretical questions outside the discriminating power of the vision, need be no bar to the establishment of a working standard white light; and in saying that diffused daylight is normal white, it is only intended to mean: In so far as a normal vision can determine.

Apart from any theoretical explanation it is an experimental fact, that the abnormal rays of direct sunlight, and some artificial lights, may be so modified by diffusion as to be available for a limited range of colour work. In the case of diffused north sunlight, when taken from opposite the sun’s meridian, the modification is sufficient to make it available as a standard white light. In the case of artificial lights, their use is, as yet, limited to visual matching (not recording) and arbitrary comparisons.

THE BLACK UNIT.

Ideal black is total absence of light, and can only be realized as a sensation, in the presence of light, which may however be in contrast or in association.

The nearest approach to ideal black by contrast, is to view a hole in a box with a blackened interior, so arranged that no light entering the hole, can be reflected back to the vision: in this way associated light, if not entirely absent, is reduced to a minimum and total darkness is practically realized by the vision in contrast with the surrounding light.

Pigmentary black viewed under diffused daylight conditions is always associated with white light, as no substance, however black it may be, absorbs all the impinging light; as examples, the following measurements of three white and three black pigments were made at an angle of 45 degrees with a light intensity of 25 units.

This is a true quantitative analysis of the 25 units of white light after reflection from the black pigments. The black units represent the proportion of white light absorbed, whilst the beams reflected from the pigments consist of the colour values developed which are associated with the unabsorbed white light.

TABLE II.

----------------------+--------+------+------+------+-------+------ | Lime |Blue |Lamp |Ivory |Zinc | White |Sulphate|Black |Black |Black |White | Lead ----------------------+--------+------+------+------+-------+------ Standard light units | 25·0 | | | | | ----------------------+ | | | | | Black units | | | | | | (light absorbed) | | 9·0 | 9·2 | 9·2 | -- | ·08 Violet units | | | | | | (colour developed) | | 2·2 | 1·4 | 1·4 | -- | -- Blue units | | | | | | (colour developed) | | 1·0 | 1·9 | ·4 | ·01 | ·05 Green units | | | | | | (colour developed) | | -- | -- | -- | -- | ·07 Associated white light| | 12·8 | 12·5 | 14·0 | 24·99 | 24·80 ----------------------+--------+------+------+------+-------+------ Totals | 25·0 | 25·0 | 25·0 | 25·0 | 25·0 | 25·0 ----------------------+--------+------+------+------+-------+------

The analyses demonstrate that black is not itself an active energy analogous to colour, but is a minus quantity distinguishable by contrast with the original light. The reflected beam consists of the colour developed, associated with the residue of unaltered light.

_Note._--Suitable proportions of Violet and Blue give character and value to black, whilst Orange and Yellow are less pleasing as tending to rustiness.