Roundel for use in optical experiments Robert Waring Darwin
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Roundel for use in optical experiments
Plate 9 figure 2 from the paper "New experiments on the ocular spectra of light and colours", by Robert Waring Darwin, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.76 (1786), pp.313-348. Roundel intended for use in exploring colour perception. In the written experiment circular pieces of silk are overlaid in the sequence blue (outer), yellow, pink, green and indigo (inner) with a central spot. "look steadily for a minute on this central spot, and then closing your eyes, and applying your hand at about an inch distance before them...you will see the most beautiful circles of colours that imagination can conceive, which are most resembled by the colours occasioned by pouring a drop or two of oil on a still lake on a bright day."
Original: watercolour on paper. 1785
- Image reference: RS-9947
- The Royal Society
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