The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-05-03
The Properties Of Light and Color

Tue idea that everything can be added
to light by passing it through colored
transparent substances, or by rejecting 1t
from colored surfaces, is utterly errone-
Gus, and proceeds simply from ignorance
of the nature of light. 1t has been proved
by Isaac Newton, and since his time by
innumerable experiments of various kinds,
that pure white light, such as comes from
the sun to us, contains all the cOlOrs, as
well as heat and chemical activity, and
that they may be separated, or the light
analysed, by simply passing it through
prism of a transparent substance. The
possibility of such a separation has been
understood only since the adoption of the
vibratory theory, which also explains the
nature OF the calOric, luminous, cOlored
and chemical rays. According to this
theory, the vibrations, when at compare
lively low velocity, manifest themselves
as heat only; when the vibrations are
rapid enough to produce $50, GOO, 900 900
waves per second, they become visible as
red light. Five hundred billions produce
the sensation of orange, $50, coo 900 600
that of yellow, and so on through green,
blue and violet, the latter resulting from
$50, 600, 900 900 of vibrations per second.
Vibrations still more rapid are invisible
to the human eye, but their existence is
demonstrated by their chemical action, in
the same way as the invisible vibrations
below $50, COO, 0OO, 900 per second manifest
themselves as heat only.
Densely transparent media retard the
light, and this retardati0n will effect the
rapid vibrations more than those of slower
velocity; and under certain circumstances
such media will cause light to be DETECTED
from its course in such way that the
most rapid vibrations will be most de-
Elected and the slowest least. This is the
principle of refraction, by which light
can be separated into its ca1oric, chemical
and lun inous rays of different colors. The
refraction of light, permitting the exami-
nation of the c0lors into which it has been
split up, is the fundamental principle of
the spetroscope, by which the Nature of
various luminous and illuminated SUBJ
stances can be determined.
The apparent colors of objects are
caused by their rejecting rays Of vibra-
tons of certain velocities, and neither re-
decting nor absorbing others; and the
similarly produced. They pass only GER
tain rays, and absorb the others; and the
reflected or transmitted color il then
called the color OF the object. In order to
perceive such hue, it is essential that the
light by which it is illuminated contains
that color; and this is directly demonstra.
BILE by illuminating objects with light of
one color, when objects of all other colors
will appear black or gray. Such light
can, for instance, be produced by burning
alcohol in which common salt has been
mixed this produces pure yellow flame,
and objects Of whatever color, when seen
by daylight, if illuminated by such .
fame. will only show this color. Human
faces, for instance, have in this light Q
CHASTITY, death.like appearance.
An ordinary gas, lamp, or candle light
is not pure white, being deficient in
blue rays, and has an excess of red,
orange and yellow; white object cannot,
by such light, be distinguished from q
yellow one; light blue cannot be distin-
guished from green, and dark blue looks
almost black.
In regard to the nature Of colored OBJ
jccts, whether painted or dyed, and of
transparent media, such as colored glass
or liquid solutions, the analysis Of their
colors by means of the spectroscope shows
that what we call simple colors are in
most cases complex. Only those colors