Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) by Robert Boyle
page 49 of 285 (17%)
page 49 of 285 (17%)
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looking on the Field or Plot of Ground from that part towards which the
Parallel Lines tended, the greater part of the Ground by farr would appear of its own dirty Colour, but if I look'd upon it Transversly, the Plot would appear very Green, the upper parts of the Pease hindering the intercepted parts of the Ground, which as I said retain'd their wonted Colour, from being discover'd by the Eye. And I know not, _Pyrophilus_, whether I might not add, that even the Motion of the Small Parts of a Visible Object may in some cases contribute, though it be not so easie to say how, to the Producing or the Varying of a Colour; for I have several times made a Liquor, which when it has well settled in a close Vial, is Transparent and Colourless, but as soon as the Glass is unstopp'd, begins to fly away very plentifully in a White and Opacous fume; and there are other Bodies, whose Fumes, when they fill a Receiver, would make one suspect it contains Milk, and yet when these Fumes settle into a Liquor, that Liquor is not White, but Transparent; And such White Fumes I have seen afforded by unstopping a Liquor I know, which yet is it self Diaphanous and Red; Nor are these the only Instances of this Kind, that our Tryals can supply us with. And if the Superficial Corpuscles be of the Grosser sort, and be so Framed, that their differing Sides or Faces may exhibit differing Colours, then the Motion or Rest of those Corpuscles may be considerable, as to the Colour of the Superficies they compose, upon this account, that sometimes more, sometimes fewer of the Sides dispos'd to exhibit such a Colour may by this means become or continue more Obverted to the Eye than the rest, and compose a Physical Surface, that will be more or less sensibly interrupted; As, to explane my meaning, by proposing a gross Example, I remember, that in some sorts of Leavy Plants thick set by one another, the two sides of whose Leaves were of somewhat differing Colours, there would be a notable Disparity as to Colour, if you look'd upon them both when the Leaves being at Rest had their upper and commonly expos'd sides Obverted to the Eye, and when a breath of Wind passing thorow them, |
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