Fig. 13.—Arrangement for measuring the Luminosities of Pigments.
Suppose the luminosity of a vermilion-coloured surface had to be compared with a white surface when both were illuminated, say by gaslight, the following procedure is adopted. A rectangular space is cut out of black paper (Fig. 12) of a size such that its side is rather less than twice the breadth of the rod used to cast a shadow: a convenient size is about one inch broad by three-quarters of an inch in height. One-half of the aperture is filled with a white surface, and the other half with the vermilion-coloured surface. The light L (Fig. 13) illuminates the whole, and the rod R, a little over half an inch in breadth, is placed in such a position that it casts a shadow on the white surface, the edge of the shadow being placed accurately at the junction of the vermilion and white surface. A flat silvered mirror M is placed at such a distance and at such an angle that the light it reflects casts a second shadow on the vermilion surface. Between R and L are placed the rotating sectors A. The white strip is caused to be evidently too dark and then too light by altering the aperture of the sectors, and an oscillation of diminishing extent is rapidly made till the two shadows appear equally luminous. A white screen is next substituted for the vermilion and again a comparison made. The mean of the two sets of readings of angular apertures gives the relative value of the two luminosities. It must be stated, however, that any diffused light which might be in the room would relatively illuminate the white surface more than the coloured one. To obviate this the receiving screen is placed in a box, in the front of which a narrow aperture is cut just wide enough to allow the two beams to reach the screen. An aperture is also cut at the front angle of the box, through which the observer can see the screen. When this apparatus is adopted, its efficiency is seen from the fact that when the apertures of the rotating sectors are closed the shadow on the white surface appears quite black, which it would not have done had there been diffused light in any measurable quantity present within the box. The box, it may be stated, is blackened inside, and is used in a darkened room. The mirror arrangement is useful, as any variation in the direct light also shows itself in the reflected light. Instead of gaslight, reflected skylight or sunlight can be employed by very obvious artifices, in some cases a gaslight taking the place of the reflected beam. When we wish to measure luminosities in our standard light, viz. the light emitted from the crater of the positive pole of the arc-light, all we have to do is to place the pigment in the white patch of the recombined spectrum, and illuminate the white surface by the reflected beam, using of course the rod to cast shadows, as just described. The rotating sectors must be placed in either one beam or the other, according to the luminosity of the pigment.
The luminosities of the following colours were taken by the above method, and subsequently we shall have to use their values.
| Electric Light. | |
| White | 100 |
| Vermilion | 36 |
| Emerald Green | 30 |
| Ultramarine | 4·4 |
| Orange | 39·1 |
| Black | 4 |
| " (different surface) | 5·1 |
Suppose we have two or more colours of the spectrum whose luminosities have been found, the question immediately arises, as to whether, when these two colours are combined, the luminosity of the compound colour is the sum of the luminosities of each separately. Thus suppose we have a slide with two slits placed in the spectrum, and form a colour patch of the mixture of the two colours and measure its luminosity, and then measure the luminosity of the patch first when one slit is covered up, and then the other. Will the sum of the two latter luminosities be equal to the measure of the luminosity of the compounded colour patch? One would naturally assume that it would, but the physicist is bound not to make any assumptions which are not capable of proof; and the truth or otherwise is perfectly easy to ascertain, by employing the method of measurement last indicated. Let us get our answer from such an experiment.
| Colours Measured. | Observed Luminosity. |
| R | 203·0 |
| G | 38·5 |
| V | 8·5 |
| (R + G) | 242 |
| (G + V) | 45 |
| (R + V) | 214 |
| (R + G + V) | 250 |
Three apertures were employed, one in the red, another in the green, and the third in the violet, and the luminosity was taken of each separately, next two together, and then all three combined, with the results given above.
The accuracy of the measurements will perhaps be best shown by adding the single colours together, the pairs and the single colours, and comparing these values with that obtained when the three colours were combined. When the pairs are shown they will be placed in brackets; thus (R + G) means that the luminosity of the compound colour made by red and green are being considered.