The Reproduction of Colour
Chapter One
Spectral Colour
Reproduction
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Three hundred and fifty years ago, a physics student at Cambridge University would have
been told that
White is that which discharges a copious light equally clear in every direction. Black is that which does not
emit light at all or which does it very sparingly. Red is that which emits a light more clear than usual, but
interrupted by shady interstices. Blue is that which discharges a rarefied light, as in bodies which consist
of white and black particles arranged alternatively.... The blue colour of the sea arises from the whiteness
of the salt it contains mixed with the blackness of the pure water in which the salt is dissolved
(Houston, 1923).
No wonder that Pope wrote:
'Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in night
God said "Let Newton be!" and all was light.'
In 1666 Newton laid the foundation-stone of colour science, when he discovered that white
sunlig ... read full excerpt from The Reproduction of Colour, 6th Edition ebook
