A New or Improved System of Harmonious Colouring, Based on the Analogy between the Natural Laws which Govern the Pro- duction of Music or Sound and of Colour, and Embracing the Manufacture or Admixture, Arrangement, and Nomenclature of Colours and Coloured Materials, as well as the or,, and tos and of said System.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 28th uct., 1889
Complete Specification Left. 28th July, 1890-Accepted, 18th Oct., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved System of Harmonious Colouring, Based on the
Analogy between the Natural Laws which Govern the Pro-
duction of Music or Sound and of Colour, and Embracing the
Manufacture or Admixture, Arrangement, and Nomenclature of
Colours and Coloured Materials, as well as the Construction or
Compilation of Diagrams, Scales, and Tables to Illustrate the
Uses and Application of said System.
I, CHARLES HENRY WILKINSON, of Colne Valley Works, Slaithwaite, in the County
of York, Oil and Soap Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
My invention consists chiefly in a new or improved system which I designate
harmonious colouring and which is based on the analogy between the natural laws
which govern the production or transmission of music or sound and of colour.
Sound as now defined is the impression or the effect of an impression made on the
organs of hearing by the vibrations or wave lengths of the air or other medium with
which those organs are in contact such vibrations being caused by the tremulous or
vibratory motions of the sounding body the pitch or degree of acuteness of the note
or sound depending upon the number of vibrations in a stated time sound being
usually audible when the vibrations exceed sixteen and are less than say thirty-six
thousand per second.
Colour may be defined as that by virtue of which bodies present a different
appearance to the eye irrespective of their form. In total darkness bodies have no
colour therefore colour is a property or attribute of light although the density or
atomical constitution of a body by determining the number and character of the light
vibrations transmitted to the eye also determines the colour.
In working out the system which I claim to have discovered the present method of
writing music and also the present mode of reading the keyboard of a pianoforte are
adopted and employed in combination with the seven principal or prismatic colours
namely red orange yellow green blue indigo and violet which are applied in the order
given above to the seven natural notes of harmony CDEFG A B.
A keyboard representing or corresponding to the keyboard of a piano is built
up in colours the pure primary colours red yellow and blue being set to the common
chord C E G in the natural key. These colours are then saddened or darkened in
descending octaves by adding black and are lightened in ascending octaves by adding
white each octave embracing all the prismatic colours but in various degrees of tint
or shade. In harmony the descending octave of any given note is attained by
reducing by one half the number of vibrations in the note from which the reduction
is made and thus deepening the tone and similarly the ascending octave is attained by
doubling the number of vibrations in the given note and thus lightening the tone.
The composition of the above mentioned keyboard is commenced by taking a low
form of colour which in pigments is one part black and one part primary colour so
that the common chord in the first octave is constituted as follows:-
C 1 part Black + 1 part Red.
E = 1
G = 1
+1
Yellow.
35
3:
"
22
+1
Blue.
33

page_text: each note of the common chord in the first octave by the addition of pure primary
colour only the quantity of black employed remaining constant so that the common
chord in the second octave reads thus:-
chord in the second octave reads thus :-
C
E
1 part Black + 3 parts Red.
=
1
$2
22
G
= 1
+ 3
+ 3
32
Yellow.
Blue.
"
"
"
and so on until the black is practically exhausted and I come to the octave containing
the pure primary colours on the common chord.
C = Red.
E
G
=
=
Yellow.
: Blue.
From this noint the next octave is produced by adding one part primary colour to
G = |
Blue +1
-"
יו
The next octave is produced by doubling the weight of the mixture for each note of
the common chord in the last octave by the addition of white only, the quantity of
pure primary colour remaining unchanged thus:-
C
1 part Red
+3 parts White.
E 1
=
G = 1
Blue
Yellow 3
+3
33
"
"
"
and so on through succeeding octaves as far as may be practicable.
Having in this manner worked out the common chord in the natural key throughout
the entire keyboard I now proceed to fill in the remaining four natural notes D FAB
and for this purpose I take C as being equivalent to twenty-four vibrations and I
produce a complete octave showing the mathematical relation of all the natural notes
one to another according to the number of vibrations of each note as follows:-
C24 vibrations
D = 27
22
E = 30
F
G
1
32
=
1
33
11
Red
3 Red
Red C
3 Yellow = Orange D
Yellow
(4 Yellow
{2 Blue }
Blue
8 Blue
Yellow E
= Green F
"
36
-
=
2
Blue
G
A
=
40
=
2:
B = 45
==
"
4 Red C¹
3 Blue
19 Red C¹
=
Indigo A
=
Violet B
C¹
= 48
1 Red C
==
2:
1 White
== Red
C¹
It will thus be seen that after placing the red yellow and blue on C E G respectively
the intermediate notes are mixed out of the primaries on each side of them and in
inverse ratio to the number of vibrations owned by each note.
The sharps and flats have next to be provided for and these are fixed between the
naturals to which they are sharp and flat.
In perfect harmony the sharps and flats are separate and distinct notes and make
out of one key with the seven natural notes twenty-one notes to the octave but as
their positions or numbers of vibrations vary in every scale built out of each natural
note they together with the natural notes would make after allowing for duplicate
positions about one hundred distinct notes to the octave but in constructing music

page_text: this arrangement is compromised by using one note to represent the same flat and
sharp in every key so also in this system of colouring as being the nearest practical
approach to perfect harmony in all the keys I have set the sharps and flats in equal
temperament or midway between the naturals that is they are equal mixtures of the
colours on each side of them.
In constructing a diagram therefore founded on the above rules the keys of harmony
with their common chords in both major and minor are placed vertically at each end
of the diagram or plan and the combinations produced from the common chords are
ranged horizontally across the diagram opposite the respective key and chords from
which they spring.
The scales of harmony produced by running up the keyboard in single note or in
double triple and quadruple chords are ranged up the diagram in octave lengths the
scales of the same number following each other in regular succession thus the scales
are run from bottom to top thence into the bottom of the next scale of the same
number and so on.
A
The colours in any one horizontai row across the diagram harmonize with each other
and mix with each other in any arrangement. The colours in the scales harmonize
with each other in consecutive order or in consecutive majors or in consecutive
minors the scales of the same number following each other through every octave.
line of colours comprising any number and which would harmonize in successive
order can be drafted by commencing at any desired colour and travelling in any
direction over the diagram provided that each change when moving about is inade
at right angles. The keyboard primaries are to be found in those scales with single
notes.
The chords not only show the composition of the colours to which they are attached
but also indicate that the separate colours which they represent on the keyboard
harmonize with each other as grouped.
From this system and by means of this diagram all music can be transposed into
colour by drafting the notes and chords from the scales or constructing them from the
keyboard and colours thus set from music harmonize in consecutive order exactly as
they are written or played.
White and black are separate and distinct combinations from the keyboard colours
and being Nature's light and shade harmonize in octave mixtures with all the colours
either side by side with the colours or mixed with the colours.
The octave mixtures of black and white are produced in a similar manner to the
octave mixtures of colour namely by beginning with the lowest form of mixture
visible in pigment viz., 1 part black + 1 part white.
The second octave is produced by doubling the total weight of the first mixture by
the addition of white only thus:- 1 part black + 3 parts white.
The third octave is produced by doubling the weight of the second by the addition
of white only as before and so on through the remaining octaves until the black is
practically exhausted.
In selecting primary colours according to my system as herein set forth any suitable
pure reds yellows and blues may be used but they must be pure colours and selected
so as to have the three colours as nearly equal in intensity as possible. I find in
practice that the following in oil colours give satisfactory results lanp black vermilion
red aureolin yellow cobalt blue flake white.
There is also the process of producing shades and tints by carding or scribbling
fibrous materials together and in preparing octave shades of scribbled colours it will be
seen that they descend lower or require a greater quantity of black than they do in
pigments but they do not ascend as high in quantity of white required. The reason
of this is that piginents being made up of such small particles are capable of being so
finely mixed or blended that they may be said to partake of each other's nature whereas
in fibrous materials the most successful process of blending merely lays the fibres side
by side consequently in a black and white the eye observes the pure white alone
floating over and about the black material the eye therefore readily distinguishes a

page_text: black and white or black and coloured mixture several octaves deeper in carded fibrous
materials than it does in pigment, mixtures.
Whenever reference is made to black being added to the colours in darkening or
saddening either in colour mixing printing or dyeing it refers to the material or sub-
stances being used as a black or to the mixtures or compound of primary colours in
the proportions which produce a black.
In dyeing and printing any three primary colours can be used which will develop
themselves without material change under the same conditions of treatment and which
are alike suitable for the same material the white raw material itself being the agent
for lightening the shades which is effected by reducing the quantity of the primary
colours used proportionately to the quantity of the raw material and black or the
proportions of red yellow and blue which produce black being added to the primaries
for saddening or darkening.
In making colour solutions the dry colour used must be included in the measures of
solution given.
I now explain how to reduce any three primary colours to an equal intensity for the
purpose of applying them to the common chord and building up the keyboard by
giving the process adopted in my dyeing diagram where I use aniline colours in
solution. I take a given quantity of each primary colour and dissolve each in a given
volume of water and dye a range of colours from each in octave shades. I then set the
ranges side by side fixing them opposite each other at a point where the red yellow
and blue appear to the sight to be balanced I read off the quantities of each colour that
have made those equal shades and prepare my solutions afterwards in those proportions
so that an equal quantity of each solution will give equal weights or tints of colour.
I then proceed to dye say 10 lbs. of wool although any other given weight would
answer my purpose a dead black or as near a dead black as the primaries will
develop. I then read off the quantity of red yellow and blue solutions used to dye
the 10 lbs. of wool black and for this illustration I will assume that it takes five pints
of red solution three pints of yellow solution and eight pints of blue solution.
The standard of colour is now obtained for dyeing the colours on the diagrain from
any three primary colours working together and by using the quantities attached to
each colour.
In order to use some other single primary colour say for example blue with above
red and yellow ascertain how much of the new blue it takes in combination with the
red and yellow to dye 10 lbs. of wool dead black and then put that quantity in every
eight pints of water.
If dyewoods are required to be used instead of anilines dye 10 lbs. of raw material dead
black and divide the red dyewares into five parts yellow into three parts and blue into
eight parts and read and use them as pints by this means every colour is regulated to
produce the same pitch or tone of colour but the melody or bloom will vary slightly.
To get any other material say cotton for instance a similar shade to what is on a
given wool colour on the diagram dye 10 lbs. of the cotton black and divide the
parts the same way the measures attached to the wool colour will when ineasured
out of the solutions for cotton give the same weight of colour.
Dyes giving compound shades and working to same treatment as primaries can be
used along with the primaries for producing colours which contain the elements of
the compound colour. A fairly accurate opinion as to what the compound colour
contains can be arrived at by mnatching a colour from it with the colours on the
diagram the operator can thus learn what primaries to add to it for dyeing his desired
colour.
1 propose to construct various keyboards as many as may be required for the
purpose of illustrating the application of my invention to the several branches of
colouring but the principle is the same in all namely to procure pure primary colours
and
put them in octave shades by adding black and white as already described and
running the octave shades to points as dark and as light respectively as the eyesight
may require.

page_text: In a sixteen octave diagram I commence with what has previously been named the
third octave as this seems as dark as it is necessary to go for all practical purposes but
being the first on the diagram 1 have called it octave I.
I find that sixteen octaves embrace or nearly so the range of vision from the darkest
to the lightest, and these sixteen octaves which I consider sufficient for embracing all
the colours between black and white comprise over 9000 colours but over 4000 of
these are duplicates which recur in the several keys of harmony.
The chief advantages I claim for this system are that it is applicable to all classes
of colouring and colour mixing that it is founded upon natural laws being based and
built up or constructed upon the analogy existing between the vibrations or wave
lengths of sound and the vibrations or wave lengths of colour that the mixtures of the
keyboard primaries being similarly based upon and built up in accordance with this
law every note and chord struck in harmony is reproduced by this system in colour
and must be in perfect harmony with the senses.
Since the colours harmonize in succession exactly as their harmonies are played and
also in every arrangement or combination where harmonies are in accord with the
theory of music and the sense of hearing it will be understood that this system
embodies as arising out of the association of colouring with harmony-
(a) The manufacture or admixture of such colours or coloured materials.
(6) The arrangement of colours and coloured materials after music for harınonizing
or composing purposes.
(c) The nomenclature or naming of colours or coloured materials by musical
signs and names.
(d) The construction or compilation of diagrams scales and tables to illustrate
and facilitate the practical application of the principles of harmonious
colouring herein described.
(e) The mixtures of the colours and coloured materials and for the colours there
set forth, and
(f) Numbering each colour for convenience in reference the mode of numbering
being such as to convey to the mind the composition of the colour.
This system may be adopted and used with advantage by textile manufacturers
dyers printers of colour on calico paper &c., colour makers manufacturers of paper
inks &c., painters decorators designers schools of art and artists generally and by all
trades and professions where colours or coloured materials are used.
Dated this 26th day of October 1889.
H. B. BARLOW,
Agent for Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved System of Harmonious Colouring, Based on the
Analogy between the Natural Laws which Govern the Pro-
duction of Music or Sound and of Colour, and Embracing the
Manufacture or Admixture, Arrangement, and Nomenclature of
Colours and Coloured Materials, as well as the Construction or
Compilation of Diagrams, Scales, and Tables to Illustrate the
Uses and Application of said System.
I, CHARLES HENRY WILKINSON, of Colne Valley Works, Slaithwaite, in the
County of York, Oil and Soap Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this
nvention and in what manner the same is to be performed. to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention consists chiefly in a new or improved system which I designate
armonious colouring, and which is based on the analogy between the natural laws
which govern the production or transmission of music or sound and of colour.
Sound as now defined is the impression or the effect of an impression made on
he organs of hearing by the vibrations or wave lengths of the air or other medium

page_text: with which those organs are in contact, such vibrations being caused by the tremulous
or vibratory motions of the sounding body, the pitch or degree of acuteness of the
note or sound depending upon the number of vibrations in a stated time, sound being
usually audible when the vibrations exceed sixteen and are less than say thirty-six
thousand per second.
Colour may be defined as that by virtue of which bodies present a different
In total darkness bodies have no
appearance to the eye irrespective of their form.
colour therefore colour is a property or attribute of light, although the density or
atomical constitution of a body by determining the number and character of the light
vibrations transmitted to the eye also determines the colour.
6
The author of The Philosophy of Nature" published by Mr. John Murray of
London, in 1813, says that Sir Isaac Newton remarked that the breadths of the
seven primary colours were proportional to the seven musical notes of the gamut" or
in other words that the wave lengths of the notes in a complete octave of music
correspond or are analogous to the wave lengths of the colours of the solar
spectrum.
In working out the system which I claim to have discovered the present method
of writing music and also the present mode of reading the keyboard of a piano-
forte are adopted and employed in combination with the seven principal or prismatic
colours namely red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet which are applied
in the order given above to the seven natural notes of harmony CDEFGA B, that
is to say a keyboard representing or corresponding to the keyboard of a piano is built
up in colours the pure primary colours red, yellow and blue being set to the common
chord C E G in the natural key, and the remaining prismatic colours being obtained
by admixtures of the three primary colours in certain definite proportions as herein-
after described.
These colours are then saddened or darkened in descending octaves by adding black
and are lightened in ascending octaves by adding white, each octave embracing all
the prismatic colours in the order above named but in various degrees of tint or shade,
this method being analogous to that employed in harmony where the descending
octave of any given note is attained by reducing by one half the number of vibrations
in the note from which the reduction, is made and thus deepening the tone; and
similarly the ascending octave is attained by doubling the number of vibrations in the
given note and thus lightening the tone.
In dealing with black and the primary colours, however, I am met with the fact
that their depth or density of tone is an unknown quantity so that the question of
what is a pure octave in colour has hitherto been a matter of conjecture; but I assume
that if any given colour has its depth or intensity of tone doubled it stands in all
respects analogous to a given note in music being lowered one octave in pitch or
Lone, so also if any given colour has its tone or density lightened by adding its own
weight of that which gives it light, or luminosity it stands in all respects analogous to
a given note in music being raised in pitch or tone one octave.
The composition of the above mentioned keyboard is commenced by taking a low
form of colour which call my base colour and which in pigments is say one parr
black and one part primary colour so that the common chord in the first octave is
constituted as follows:
I begin to build up the keyboard with the common chord C E G in the first octave
represented by base colours each composed as above specified of equal mixtures of
black and the respective primary colour, as a mixture in that proportion produces
with pigments practically the lowest form of colour which is visible to the
human eye.
The next lighter shade or No. 2 octave is produced by doubling the weight of the

page_text: mixture or base colour for each note of the common chord in the first octave by the
addition of that constituent part of it which gives it its fightness or fuminosity and
which in this case is pure primary colour only, the quantity of black employed
remaining constant so that the common chord in the second octave reads thus:-
addition of that constituent part of it which gives it its fightness or minosity and
which in this case is pure primary colour only, the quantity of black employed
remaining constant so that the common chord in the second octave reads thus:-
1 part Black + 3 parts Red.
C =
E = 1
G 1
12
39
==
27
+3
+3
22
Yellow.
Blue.
and I proceed thus until the black is practically exhausted and 1 come to the shade or
tone of colour which to the eye seems to be midway between the octave shade
preceding it and the succeeding octave which contains the so called pure primary
colours on the notes of the common chord thus :-
C=Red (Primary Colour)
E: Yellow
G== Blue
22
In this way I obtain a complete range of octave shades beginning at equal mixtures
of black and primary colour and ending at the pure primary colours. I then proceed
to produce the octave shades between the primary colours and white and for this
purpose I take as my base colours equal mixtures of the primary colours and white
and work towards the primary colours by doubling the weight of this base colour by
adding primary colour only so that the first octave from this point and travelling
back towards the octave of primaries is made up of one white and three primary
colour, my next octave is one part white and seven parts primary colour and this 1
find to be a suitable point to stop at, because to the sight it appears to be midway in
tone between the last octave containing mixtures of one part white and three parts
primary and the octave containing the primary colours.
My next object is to produce the octave shades or tints lying between white and the
octave containing the base colours, i.e. equal mixtures of primary colour and white,
and to effect this I double the weight of the base colours by adding white only thus
iny next octave is one part primary and three parts white and my next one part
primary and seven parts white and thus I proceed until I come to that octave tint
which to the sight appears to be midway between the preceding octave tint and
pure white.
I thus produce a complete range of colours in octave shades or true intervals
as determined by the eye from a point as dark to a point as light as distinguishable.
I have ascertained by actual experiment that for practica! purposes eighteen octaves
of keyboard primaries will be sufficient to embrace ali the shades and tints required,
thus omitting the first two octaves.

page_text: Having in this manner worked out in colour the common chord in the natural key
throughout the entire keyboard I now proceed to fill in the colours of the remaining
four natural notes D F A B and for this purpose take C as being equivalent
to twenty-four vibrations and I produce a complete colour octave based upon the
mathematical relation of all the natural notes one to another according to the number
of vibrations of each note as follows and as shown upon Sheet 1 of the diagrams
hereunto annexed and forming part of this Specification—
C = 24 vibrations
D = 27
=
33
E = 30
F
=
32
"
Gr = 36
A = 40
B
=
45
"
C = 48
=
=
Red
3 Red C
3 Yellow E
Yellow
(4 Yellow E
12 Blue G
Blue
نا
=
= Red
Orange D
Yellow E
1
Green F
-
Blue (1
=
3!
4 Red C¹
Indigo A
3 Blue G
113
9 Red C¹
Red
= Violet B
&
mixture
White]
}
Red C¹
8 Blue (
It will thus be seen that after placing the red yellow and blue on CEG respectively.
the intermediate notes are mixed out of the primaries on each side of them and in
inverse ratio to the number of vibrations owned by each note; that is to say for
example F has 32 vibrations and is composed of a mixture of its adjoining notes or
colours E and G which have 30 and 36 vibrations respectively, therefore F is composed
of four parts E (yellow) and two parts G (blue) instead of being composed of
equal parts yellow and blue as would have been the case had the value of F been
33 vibrations.
The sharps and flats have next to be provided for and these are fixed between the
naturals to which they are respectively sharp and flat.
In perfect harmony the sharps and flats are separate and distinct notes and make
out of one key with the seven natural notes twenty-one notes to the octave ; but as
their positions or numbers of vibrations vary in every scale built out of each natural
note, they, together with the natural notes, would make-after allowing for duplicate
positions about one hundred distinct notes to the octave; but in constructing music
this arrangement is compromised by using one note to represent the same flat and
sharp in every key, so also in this system of colouring as being the nearest practical
approach to perfect harmony in all the keys, I have set the sharps and flats in equal
temperament or midway between the naturals, that is they are equal mixtures of the
colours on each side of them.
In constructing a diagram therefore founded on the above rules the keys of
harmony with their common chords in both major and minor are placed vertically

page_text: at each end of the diagram or plan a portion of which is illustrated on Sheets 2
and 3 of the diagrams annexed and the combinations produced from the common
chords are ranged horizontally across the diagram opposite the respective keys and
chords from which they spring.
The scales of harmony produced by running up the keyboard in single note or
in double triple and quadruple chords are ranged up the diagram in octave lengths
the scales of the same number following each other in regular succession thus the
scales are run from bottom to top thence into the bottom of the next scale of the
same number and so on.
No colours are shown upon the first section or octave I of the diagram a part of
which is illustrated by Sheets 2 and 3 but of course it is intended to fill in the vacant
outlined spaces numbered from 1 to 24 in each row with colours produced by the
admixtures in equal proportions of the several colours represented by the respective
musical signs placed below each space.
Octaves 2, 3, and 4 &c., forming the entire diagram would in construction so far as
outline and arrangement is concerned be merely repetitions of the section illustrated
by Sheets 2 and 3.
The colours in any one horizontal row across the entire diagrain harmonize with.
each other and mix with each other in any arrangement. The colours in the scales.
harmonize with each other in consecutive order or in consecutive majors or in
consecutive ninors the scales of the same number following each other through every
octave. A line of colours comprising any number and which would harmonize in.
successive order can be drafted by commencing at any desired colour and travelling
in any direction over the diagram provided that each change when moving about is
made at right angles. The keyboard primaries are to be found in those scales with:
single notes.
The chords not only show the composition of the colours to which they are attached..
but also indicate that the separate colours which they represent on the keyboard
harmonize with each other as grouped.
The foregoing is an explanation of my system of harmonizing colours where all
the colours appear on one diagram but in order to present the said system in a book
form for commercial purposes I draft out all the colours in one key and place them on
a double page so as to show the entire key at one opening of the book and in such a
manner that all the octave shades and tints of one colour appear in one row I thus.
have 24 rows of colours, each of which contains as many shades or tints to that
colour as there are octaves in the system and all being in the same key it follows
that all the colours seen at one opening of the book harmonize with each other in
any arrangement. I arrange in book form as described all the 24 keys and these 1.
term ranges and number them consecutively. I also propose to state with each colour
its component parts in terms of the primaries and black and white.
In order to select a string of colours harmonizing with each other and which run
through two or more ranges the following instruction must be observed :-
After making a selection of the colours required in say No. 1 range or minor
notice must be taken of the number of the last colour selected in that range then
turning to No. 2 range or C major the colour bearing the same number as the last
selected in No. 1 range or C minor is the colour which must next be taken to put the
selected colours in harmony with No. 2 range or C major and as many colours as are
desirable can follow on out of the same range.
If it is required to select colours out of Nos. 1 and 4 ranges and supposing the last
colour selected in No. 1 range to be 46 then Nos. 46 in ranges 2, 3 and 4, (C major.
C minor, and C major respectively) must follow on and as many colours as are
required out of range 4 can then be added and so on.
From this system and by means of diagrams composed as illustrated and as herein
described all music can be transposed into colour by drafting the notes and chords
from the scales or constructing them from the keyboard, and colours thus set from
music harmonize in consecutive order exactly as they are written or played.

page_text: White and black are separate and distinct combinations from the keyboard colours
and being Nature's light and shade harmonize in octave mixtures with all the colours
either side by side with the colours or nixed with the colours.
The octave mixtures of black and white are produced in a similar manner to the
octave mixtures of colour namely by beginning with the lowest form of mixture
visible in pigment viz.,-1 part black + 1 part white.
The second octave is produced by doubling the total weight of the first mixture by
the addition of white only thus:-1 part black + 3 parts white.
The third octave is produced by doubling the weight of the second by the addition
of white only as before and so on through the remaining octaves until the black is
practically exhausted.
In selecting primary colours according to my system as herein set forth any suitable
pure reds, yellows and blues may be used but they must be as pure colours as are
procurable and selected so as to have the three colours as nearly equal in intensity as
possible. I find in practice that the following in oil colours give satisfactory results
lamp black, vermilion red, aureolin yellow, cobalt blue, flake white.
There is also the process of producing shades and tints by carding or scribbling
fibrous materials together and in preparing octave shades of scribbled colours it will
be seen that they descend lower or require a greater quantity of black than they do in
pigments but they do not ascend as high in quantity of white required. The reason
of this is that piginents being made up of such small particles are capable of being so
finely mixed or blended that they may be said to partake of each other's nature whereas in
fibrous materials the most successful process of blending merely lays the fibres side by
side; consequently in a black and white the eye observes the pure white alone
floating over and about, the black material, the eye therefore readily distinguishes a
black and white or black and coloured mixture several octaves deeper in carded
fibrous materials than it does in pigment mixtures.
Whenever reference is being made to black being added to the colours in darkening
or saddening either in colour mixing, printing or dyeing it refers to the material or
substances being used as a black or to the mixtures or compound of primary colours
in the proportions which produce a black.
In dyeing and printing any three so called primary colours can be used which will
develop themselves without material change under the same conditions of treatment
and which are alike suitable for the same material, the white raw material itself being
the agent for lightening the shades which is effected by reducing the quantity of the
primary colours used proportionately to the quantity of the raw material; and black or
the proportions of red, yellow and blue which produce black being added to the
primaries for saddening or darkening.
In making colour solutions the dry colour used must be included in the measures
of solution given.
I now explain how to reduce any three primary colours to an equal intensity for
the purpose of applying them to the common chord, and building up the keyboard by
giving the process adopted in my dyeing diagram where I use aniline or other
suitable colours in solution. I take a given quantity of each primary colour and
dissolve each in a given volume of water and dye a range of colours from each in
octave shades. I then set the ranges side by side fixing them opposite each other at
a point where the red yellow and blue appear to the sight to be equally balanced :
I read off the quantities of each colour that have made those equal shades and prepare
my solutions afterwards in those proportions so that an equal quantity of each solution
will give equal weights or tints of colour. I then proceed to dye say 10 lbs. of wool
(although any other given weight would answer my purpose) a dead black or as near
à dead black as the primaries will develop. then read off the quantity of red
yellow and blue solutions used to dye the 10 lbs. of wool black, and for this illustration
I will assume that it takes five pints of red solution, three pints of yellow solution,
and eight pints of blue solution.
Although I have given the above quantities to illustrate the procedure of testing

page_text: the strength of the primary colours I wish it to be clearly understood that these
proportions are not binding as the same would vary with any variations in the quality
or tinctorial strength of the primary colours.
The standard of colour is now obtained for dyeing the colours on the diagram from
any three primary colours working together and by using the quantities attached to
each colour.
In order to use some other single primary colour say for example blue with the
above red and yellow ascertain how much of the new blue it takes in combination
with the red and yellow to dye 10 lbs. of wool dead or approximately dead black and
then put that quantity in every eight pints of water.
If dyewoods are required to be used instead of anilines or other colouring matters,
dye 10 lbs. of raw material dead or approximately dead black and divide the red dye-
wares into five parts, yellow into three parts, and blue into eight parts and read
and use them as pints; by this means every colour is regulated to produce the
same pitch or tone of colour but the melody or bloom will vary slightly.
To get any other material say cotton for instance a similar shade to what is on
a given wool colour on the diagram dye 10 lbs. of the cotton black and divide the
parts the same way, the measures attached to the wool colour will when measured
out of the solutions for cotton give the same weight of colour.
Dyes giving compound shades such say as a drab or brown and working to or
developing under the same treatment as primaries can be used along with the
primaries for producing colours which contain the elements of the compound colour.
A fairly accurate opinion as to what the compound colour contains can be arrived at
by matching a colour from it with the colours on the diagram, whereby the operator
can learn what primaries to add to it for dyeing his desired colour.
I propose to construct various keyboards as many as may be required, for the
purpose of illustrating the application of my invention to the several branches of
colouring and the various materials treated; but the principle is the same in all
namely to procure so called pure primary colours and put thein in octave shades by
adding black and white as already described and running the octave shades to
points as dark and as light respectively as the eyesight may require, and then
completing the diagrams by building up the keys of harmony with their combinations
as before described.
It will be understood that all the colours on the diagrains represented by more than
one musical sign are composed of equal weights of the colours represented by each
separate musical sign, thus the colour represented by the common chord C EG would
be composed of one-third C, red; one-third E, yellow; and one-third G, blue.
I find that eighteen octaves embrace or nearly so the range of vision from the
darkest to the lightest, and these eighteen octaves which I consider sufficient for
embracing all the colours shades or tints between black and white comprise over
10,000 colours; but about 5,000 of these are duplicates which recur in the several
keys of harmony.
It is however a matter of choice how many octaves to embrace in any diagram or
publication and although eighteen may be sufficient for all practical purposes this
number can either be increased or reduced as is found desirable.
The chief advantages I claim for this system are that it is applicable to all classes
of colouring and colour mixing, that it is founded upon natural laws being based and
built up or constructed upon the analogy existing between the vibrations or wave
lengths of sound and the vibrations or wave lengths of colour, that the mixtures of
the keyboard primaries being similarly based upon and built up in accordance with
this law, every note and chord struck in harmony is or can be reproduced by this
system in colour and must be in perfect harmony with the senses, since the colours
harmonize in succession exactly as their harmonies are played and also in every
arrangement or combination where harmonies are in accord with the theory of music
and the sense of hearing.

page_text: It will be understood that this system embodies as arising out of the association o
colouring with harmony-
(a) The manufacture or admixture of such colours or coloured materials in
definite proportions based upon the mathematical relation of the notes in the
inusical scale.
(b) The arrangement of such colours and coloured materials after music for
harmonizing or composing purposes.
(c) The nomenclature or naming of such colours or coloured materials by musical
signs and names.
(d) The construction or compilation of diagrams scales and tables to illustrate
and facilitate the practical application of the principles of harmonious colouring
herein described.
This system may be adopted and used with advantage by textile manufacturers,
dyers, printers of colour on calico, paper, floorcloth &c., colour makers, manufacturers
of paper, inks &c., painters, decorators, designers, schools of art, and artists generally
and by all trades and professions where colours or coloured materials are used.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The herein described system or method of harmonious colouring in which an
octave or scale in colour corresponding to the gamut or diatonic scale in harmony
is produced by setting the three primary colours red. yellow and blue respectively
in the order named to the notes CE G of the common chord in the natural key
and then by mixing these said primaries in certain definite proportions based upon
the mathematical relation which exists between the different notes of the musical
scale, the remaining principal or prismatic colours orange, green, indigo and violet
are obtained and placed in corresponding positions respectively to the remaining
natural notes, D, F, A, B, of the musical scale, while the intermediate colours
representing the sharps and flats are produced by equal admixtures of the principal
colours on each side of them respectively, the octave or prismatic scale of colours
thus obtained being darkened in descending octaves by adding black and lightened
in ascending octaves by adding white, all substantially as and for the purposes herein
set forth.
2. The herein described diagrams of colour harmonies consisting of notes, chords,
or scales in ranges or keys corresponding respectively to the notes chords scales
and keys of music or harmony and composed by certain definite admixtures from
the so called primaries red yellow and blue with black and white in pigment or
other colours or coloured materials substantially as herein specified.
3. The manufacture or production of colours or coloured materials by the
admixture of the primary colours red yellow and blue with black and white by the
system or method of harmonious colouring hereinbefore specified.
Dated this 26th day of July 1890.
H. B. BARLOW,
17, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agent for Applicant.