Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9947
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Roundel for use in optical experiments
Date
1785
Creator
Robert Waring Darwin (1766 - 1848, British) , Physician
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 231mm
width (painting): 187mm
width (painting): 187mm
Subject
Description
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.”
Inscribed in ink with the figure number and in pencil with the locations of associated figures used in the final published plate. Not signed.
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.”
Inscribed in ink with the figure number and in pencil with the locations of associated figures used in the final published plate. Not signed.
Associated place