The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1885-02-17
coLoRs, LARGE AND SMALL.
Curious Fact. That Are Explained by
Prof Huxicy's Late Discovery.

tam eOlOrS are larger tll0n other cOiors,
Is one OF the most remarkable discover
les of modern times. says the New
York Times. We have long been ac-
customed to speak Of cold and warm
and loud and quiet colors. but these
terms have been used figuratively.
That colors are largo or small is lit
eral fact, and on reading the account
Of Prof Huxley's experiments II 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 nil No.
10 stockings, Il was evident that the
difference in the size between the red
and blue pairs was due to their respcc-
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 n 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.
Prof. Huxley finds that white is the
largest Of all colors. White letters on
black ground can be seen much fur
Their than black letters on 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-
err than she would be in black. Wo-
men long ago intuitively grasped the
fact that black is the proper wear for
n fat woman. Drcssmakers have been
accustomed to say that a black dress
makes a stout woman appear reason
ably small, but we now know that 1t
actually and litoNlly reduces her size.
A series Of experiments made with a
stout woman demonstrated that she
weighed forty pounds less when dress
cd in black than she we ghed when
dressed in white. Prof. Huxley con-
cedcs 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,
II any, was n small one. and that it 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
course, 1t is tho white dress which
makes the German fat. Dress the same
man in black clothes, and he would be
a man Of ordinary size. The majestic
appearance of the that is to say, the
size of-in short, the ballet girl invar-
ably wears white or very light-colored
tights, because white is the largest Of
all colors. Brown and pink may oc-
casionally be used, but it is the opinion
of Prof. Huxley that in nearly all cases
the attractiveness of the ballet is due to
the imposing size of white.
Next to white, yellow is the largest of
all colors. The New York Cab COM
pany has been fortunate in painting the
lower part of its cabs yellow, since by
lnlS ti'N tit IOOIlN
than they would be had they been
painted black. So, too, the gilt and
yellow paint used on board our river
steamers sensibly increases their ton
mage. Most railway cars are painted
red, and Prof. Huxley estimates that
red car which holds sixty passengers
would not hold more than fifty were il
painted blue. The world has long
known that the relocated British sol
der is n larger and drawer man than
the bluc-coated Frenchman, but it has
never hitherto occurred to anyone that
tits difference 10 size was due to the
difference in coiDrs. The Austrian SOL
diers, when clad in their traditional
white coats, weighed, on an average
100 pounds ca h, but the substitution
Of gray coats has reduced the weight of
the Austrian infantryman to $50
pounds. The young gentlemen who
hunt the anise-seed bag ON Long Is
land are, as rule, slight and graceful
in figure when dressed in blac', but
when they put on their red and white
uniforms they present really in pos
ing appearance.
Prof. Huxley points out that the COM
mon practice of painting steamships
black seriously affects their carrying
capacity. He calculates that the ton
mage 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 n
black iron-clad ram would be increased
one-ninth were she to be given coat
Of white paint. He claims that the SUI
periority of the white over the yellow
man, and of the latter over the black
man, is purely the result Of colors, and
asserts that were Englishmen to paint
themselves dead white from head to
foot and wear white clothes they would
make an average gain of three inch S
in height and twelve pounds in weight.
1t is evident that this new discovery
will have the most important consc-
quences. Time and space would fail
to allude, even in ths most cursory
manner, to the various ways in which
1t will affect the commerce, manutac-
lures, and daily life of nations;- but 1t
can hardly be doubted that white and
red, owing to their great superiority in
size, will. in the near future, become
of almost universal use, and that black
and blue will be used only when the
size of objects is sought to be de-
rr rod