The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1907-05-17

A 1IaFvelous, seIF-Adfusting, Pb0tc

a Marvellous. EeIr-adF usting. Photo
graphic CEmera-
Once upon q time there was a good
quaker IN England Lhere were many
good Quakers there, for that matter,
but this one was especially important
He was the greatest chemist OF an age
in which chemistry and magic we're
looked upon as blood brothers. Also,
serVances. Yet one Sunday he came
to meeting with pair o. brilliant
scarlet stockings, clothing his legs be-
low the point where his knee breech-
es quit business The brethren were
scandalized, naturally, and asked him
what he meant by such conduct he
asked the nature OF his Onense, and
they pointed TO his stockings Then
the stockings and the brethren near
" had q ut
That was the beginning Of our know
ledge OF q very important thing about
the human eye Dalton, the Quaker
chemist, was color blind. BE could
not use red at all Just how he con
Tinced the brethren that he was not
Wflfully walking In the ways Of sin IS
not recorded: but he did il some way.
Then he began TO study his own case
and those Of others with like Attic
tons The result was the first article
on color blindness published in 1874.
The human eye is just a marvel
Ously delicate, self-adjusting. photo
=
nea, which protects the softer tissues,
and begins the job OF converging the
rays Of light Back OF this is the iris,
the intelligent curtain that regulates
the amount OF light its particular eye
needs Back Of this again is the lens,
which COnTerges the rays Of light un-
I'll It makes a tiny inverted image OF
the object looked at. This image IS
thrown upon the sensitive plate at the
very back Of the eye, the retina; and
~nne nh he 70 he
visual centers Of the brain So a con
slant succession Of moving pictures is
keeping the brain informed Of what
goes on in the outer world.
So much for the light and shade
part OF sight, and you see how like a
camera it IS. But there Is something
more. In this wonderful retfna is an
apparatus Tor registering the colOrs Of
objects There are about 100000
little color sentfnels there, ready to
telegraph their reports on color to
the waiting brain behind Each Of
these color guards knows only the one
color the other fellows must look
after the rest There are several
hundred thousand OF them on the
lookout for green, rather more for red,
more yet for violet, and they 90 on
increasing till more than 100000 Of
them have eyes for nothing but vel
low Think what those figures mean
Is IL any wonder so delicate a ma
chine sometimes gets out OF OrderZ Is
it any wonder some Of the pieces are
occasionally left out in the making2
And If a part OF these color guards
are left out, the person owning that
eye is blind to that colod- For the
union rules are very strict, and If the
red guards are absent, no cOnstd6ra-
ton on earth viii induce the yellow
OF green guards to do the extra work.
1t has TO be handled by its proper IN
ion, or not at all In Dalton's case,
the red guards were left out Every
object, no matter how brilliantly col
Ored. reflects a large proportion Of
white light Dalton saw only this
white light on those scarlet stockings.
mixed with something which was
black TO him, and naturally supposed
he was wearing a sober gray. What
the brethren thought about il no one
viii ever know, for IL is not to be sup
sentiments on the matter.
And then think Of this: that the
best eye in the world only sees about
One-quarter Of the colOrs that are
waiting to be seen when some eye is
developed with a wide enough range
A little less than one octave Of light
vibrations are claSsed as cOlOrs by the
human eye. Above and below this
limited range are light waves which
we cannot take in. The lower reg
ister We feel as heat. The upper reg
lister We feel as heat. The upper reg
lister we can sometimes slow down q
little, as with an x-ray machine, so as
20 make them visible. But the great
majority Of them escape US altogether |
If there should rise some man who |
could see all those waiting colors, how |
dull and EfeleSS our greatest paintings
would look to him.