Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-01-13
COLORS, LARGE AND SMALL.
Curious Facts That Are Explained BY
Prof Huxley's Late Discovery.

SOLOktSs LAItuE AMI SMlAAbs
Curious Facts That Are Explained BY
Prof Huxley's Late Discovery.
The discovery recently made by
Prof. Huxley that size is en- attribute
of color, or, in other words, that GER
tain colors are larger than other colors,
is one of the most remarkable discover
les of modern times, says the New
York Times. We have long been &C
customed to speak of cold and warm
and loud and quiet colors, but these
terms have been used figuratively.
That colors are large or small is q lit
eral fact, and on reading the account
of Prof. Huxley's experiments it seems
strange that the discovery was not
made long ago.
The professors attention was called
to the matter quito accidentally through
the medium Of stockings. He had
bought six pairs of stockings of the
size known as No. 10. Three of them
were red and three blue. On trying
them on he found that the blue stock
ings were too small and the red ones
rather too large. As they were all No.
10 stockings, it was evident that the
difference in the size between the red
and blue pairs was due to their respec-
tive colors.
Pursuing his investigations in con-
nection with stockings, Prof. Huxley
found that white stockings are larger
than either red or yellow, that black
ones are smaller than blue ones, and
that, in short, there is q regular scale
of size in colors. reaching from black
up to white. Having thus established
the fact that colors affect the size OF
stockings, he extended his investigation
to other fields, and confirmed the re-
suit of his stocking experiments.
Prot. Huxley finds that white is the
largest of all colors. White letters on
black ground can be seen much fur
ther than black letters on q white
ground. thus proving that the former
are larger than the latter. A woman
in white dress is larger than she
would be in blue, and very much larg-
er than she would be in black. We
men long ago intuitively grasped the
fact that black is the proper wear for
fat woman. Dressmakers have been
accustomed to say that q black dress
makes stout woman appear reason
ably small, but we now know that it
actually and literally reduces her size.
A series of experiments made with
stout woman demonstrated that she
weighed forty pounds less when dress
ed in black than she weighed when
dressed in white. Prof. Huxley con-
cedes that there may have been some
slight error in this experimenting,
since the operation of changing the
dress was not personally conducted by
him. Still, he believes that the error,
if any, was a small one, and that il did
not materially affect the result.
Nearly everyone has met in the sum-
mertime fat German dressed entirely
in white; but thin white-clad German
is something entirely unknown. OF
it is the white dress which
makes the German fat. Dress the same
man in black clothes. and he would be
q man of ordinary size. The majestic
appearance of the-that is to say, the
size of-in short, the ballet girl invari-
ably wears white or very ight-colored
lights, because white is the largest of |
Ill colors. Brown and pink may oc-
be used, but it is the opinion
If Prof Huxley that in nearly all cases
he attractiyeness of the ballet is due to
he imposing size Of white.
Next to white, yellow is the largest of
III colors. The New York Cab COM
'any has been fortunate in painting the
over part of its cabs yellow, since by
his means they are much more roomy
han they would be had they been
PAINTED black. So, too, the gilt and
'ellow paint used on board our river
teamers sensibly increases their toh-
lage. Most railway cars are painted
ed. and Prof. Huxley estimates that
ed car which holds sixty passengers
would not hold more than fifty were it
'ainted blue. The world has long
,nown that the relocated British sol
lier is larger and Drawer man than
he blue-coated Frenchman, but it has
lever hitherto occurred to anyone that
his difference in size was due to the
Inference in colors. The Austrian SOL
iiers, when clad in their traditional
white coats. weighed. on an average,
l6O pounds each, but the substitution
,f gray coats has reduced the weight OF
he Austrian infantryman to $50
pounds. The young gentlemen who
lunt the auise-seed bag on Long Is
and are, as rule, slight and graceful
n figure when dressed in black, but
when they put on their red and white
uniforms they present really impos-
ng appearance.
Prof. Huxley points out that the COM
non practice of painting steamships
black seriously affects their carrying
He calculates that the tom
1age of the Brittanic, for example.
which is now only $500 tons, could be
increased to 6, 1877 tons by painting her
white, and that the momentum of a
black iron-clad ram would be increased
'ne-ninth were she to be given a coat
IT white paint. He claims that the su-
'eriority of the white over the yellow
nan. and of the latter over the black
nan, is purely the result of colors, and
lsserts that were Englishmen to paint
q dead white from head to
DOT and wear white clothes they would
make an average gain of three inches
n height and twelve pounds in weight.
1t is evident that this new discovery
will have the most important conse-
luences. Time and space would fail
o allude. even in the most cursory
manner, to the various ways in which
t will affect the commerce, manufac-
ures. and daily life of nations; but it
an hardly be doubted that white and
ed, owing to their great superiority in
ize, will. in the near future, become
# almost universal use, and that black
md blue will be used only when the
ize of objects is sought to be de-
reased