VI. the Colours of the Atmosphere Considered with Reference to a Previous Paper “On the Colour of Steam Under Certain Circumstances.”
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Philosophical Magazine Series 3 ISSN: 1941-5966 (Print) 1941-5974 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tphm14 VI. The colours of the atmosphere considered with reference to a previous paper “On the colour of steam under certain circumstances.” James D. Forbes Esq. F. R. SS. L. & Ed. To cite this article: James D. Forbes Esq. F. R. SS. L. & Ed. (1839) VI. The colours of the atmosphere considered with reference to a previous paper “On the colour of steam under certain circumstances.” , Philosophical Magazine Series 3, 15:93, 25-37, DOI: 10.1080/14786443908649817 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786443908649817 Published online: 01 Jun 2009. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=3phm20 Download by: [Universite Laval] Date: 27 June 2016, At: 10:33 Professor Forbes on the Colours of the/ltmosphere. 25 But it appears to me that the powers and riehes of these extraordinary districts remain vet to be fully developed. They exhibit an immense number of mighty steam-engines, furnished by nature at no cost, and applicable to the produc- tion of an infinite variety of objects. In the progress of time this vast machinery of heat and force will probably become the moving central point of extensive manufacturing establish- ments. The steam, which has been so ingeniously applied to the concentration and evaporation of the boracic acid, will probably hereafter, instead of wasting itself in the air, be em- ployed to move huge engines, which will be directed to the infinite variety of production which engages the attention of labouring and intelligent artisans; and thus, in the course of time, there can be little doubt, that these lagoons, which were fled fi'om as objects of danger and terror by uninstructed man, will gather round them a large intelligent population, and beeome sources of prosperity to innumerable individuals through countless generations. VI. The Colours of the Atmosphere considered with reference to a previous PaTer " On the Colour of Steam under certain circumstances." B 9 JAMES D. Foa~ES, Esq., _P. R. SS. L. ,f)" I,~d., Professor ofl Natural Philosoph 9 in the Universit9 of Edinburgh. [Contimted fi'om vol. xiv. p. 4~6.] A TOTALLYdiflbrent hypothesis from any of the preceding, as regards the _blue of the sky, was about the same time started by Muncke. He asserts that this hue is, what the German writers call purely subjective, that is, an ocular deception, re- ceived by the eye on looking into vacant space *. This theory has been well discussed by Brandes, but I think he has not succeeded m• explaining," " O" Muncke" ~ s fimdamental experiment,* which is this :-- If the sky be viewed by one eye directly, and Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 10:33 27 June 2016 by the other through a long blackened tube, the colour in the latter case gradually seems to vanish. Now, the explanation of this optical difficulty is to be found, I conceive, in the ge- neral fact first observed by Mr. Smithj', and which I have verified in a great variety of cases, that when a white object is viewed at once by both eyes, one shaded, and the other powerfiflly illuminated, though its natural colour is undoubt- edly white, it appears red to the shaded eye, and green to the other. The shaded eye in Muncke's experiment, therefore, superimposes a red impression (by the eftbct of contrast with Schweigger's Journal, xxx. 81 ; and article lltmosTh~rein Gehler. Edin. Journal of Science, v, 5~. 26 Professor Forbes on the Colours of the Atmosphere. the ex osed eye) on the blue which it sees, and being its com- P . --° • plementary colour, or nearly so, it must tend to dlmmtsh the blueness, and finally to produce white. Berzelius adopts the view which considers the air itself eoloured*. In the older writings of Sir David Brewster, we find the theory of Bouguer maintained~; but since he has been led to what we must consider, for a majority of cases, a refutation of the Newtonian doctrine of the colours of bodies, he was naturally induced to view with doubt the composition of the celestial blue, and especially of the colours of clouds. That the reflected and transmitted tints shouht be complementary, as Newton's theory assign,, is well known to be rather the exception than rule in coloured bodies generally ; and a very simple prismatic analysis, which it seems difficult to miscon- strue, proves that the composition of colours--the green of leaves, for instance,--is widely different fi'om that which the doctrine of thin plates would infer S. "I have analysed too," he says, "the blue light of the sky, to which the Newtonian theory has been thought peculiarly applicable, but, instead of finding it a blue of the first order, in which the extreme red and ex- treme violet rays are deficient, while the rest of the spectrum was untouched, I found that it was defective in rays adjacent to some of the fixed lines of Fraunhofier, and that the absorptive action of out" atmosphere widened, as it were, these lines. Hence, it is obvious, that there are elements in our atmosphere which exercise a specific action upon rays of definite refrangi- bility ..... I have obtained," he adds, "analogous results in analysing the iyellozo, orange, red, and purple light which is reflected fi'om the clouds at sunset§." Such a prismatic ana- lysis as is here referred to, is even more satisfactory than in the case of the juices of plants, because here the very reflected light itself is examined in the state it reaches the eye. I need hardly add, that this experiment is not less conclusive against the Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 10:33 27 June 2016 subjective theory of Muncke, than against the theory of thin plates of water of Newton and his followers. Forster, in his treatise on Atmospheric Phmnomena, main- rains the doctrines of Melvill respecting the colour of clouds. "\Ve observe," he says, " that clouds of the same variety, having the same local or angular position with respect to the * Lehrbuch der Chemie, WShler's edit. 18~5, i. 346. 1 Edin. Encyelopredia,art. Optics, p. 620. Compare articles Atmosphere and Cyanometer. Life ofNewton,p. 78. 1831. Ed. Trans. xii. 538. ~ Ed. Trans. xii. 544. Compare Encyc. Brit. aew Edition, art. Optics, p. 51o. Professor Forbes on the Colours of the Atmosphere. 27 sun, sometimes appear richly coloured, and at other times scarcely coloured at all~--a circumstance which renders it questionable whether the colour is from the cloud itself, or whether the cloud only reflects the light which is coloured by refraction in passing through the haze of the atmosphere in the evening. The former is, however, probably the case ; for different clouds, in nearly the same angular position with re- spect to the sun, show difli~rent colours at the same timer. '' I must quote myself as having formerly adopted the theory of Bouguer, with regard at least to the celestial blue. In one of a series of papers on the Bay of Naples, published about ten years ago, I noticed the occurrence of a strictly purple tinge (the poetic lumen purpureum), in a perfectly clear sky, which I attributed to a part of the violet rays, mixed with the blue, finding their way to the eye. There is no question (notwithstanding the authority of Eustacet), that Virgil's epithet was founded on the accurate observation of Nature. The fact has also been observed by Humboldt and by Leslie~. We now come to the theory of M. Leopold Nobili of Reggio, and which, after what has been stated, may be very briefly expounded. In quoting M. Nobili's speculations on this subject as new to me~ I must observe, that they are contained Jn a memoir[I on a certain uniform scale of colours, for the use of artists, produced by the elegant method of depositing thin layers of transparent substances on metallic surthee% by precipitation from solutions by means of galvanic decompo- sition. This beautifid art of forming what Nobili calls his ~ Apparences Electro-chimiques," was first pointed out to me, as well as the papers describing it, by Professor Necker of Geneva, as far back as tim winter 1851-2~ when some mem- bers of the Society may recollect that I exhibited in this room specimens of Nobili's chromatic scale, prepared by myself§. Researches about Atmospheric Ph~nomeua~ 3rd edit., 1823~p. 86. The Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 10:33 27 June 2016 continuation of the passage will be quoted fiwther on. "In the splendour of a Neapolitan firmament, we nmy seek in vain for that purple light so delightful to our boyish fancy."--Tour in Italy. Eneyclopzedia Britannica, art. ~l/leteorology. I{ t?iblioth~que Universelle (1830), tom. xliv. p. 337.--Translated in Taylur's Scientific Memoirs, vol. i. D~r~ It is a curious circumstance, which I have never heard remarked, that Priest]ey iu a great measure anticipated the experiment of Nobili ; for, by successive electric discharges on the surface of many kinds of metal, he prcduced rings identical with those of Newton.--Priestley, Phil. Trans. 1778. These colours were no doubt produced by the heat developedin the same way as those mentioned in one part of Nobili's paper. The explana- tion of these colours, by supposing with the philosopher of Reggio (if I un- derstand him aright), that they are prodt~ced by thin plates of adhering oxggen gas~ is too evidently founded in error to require any notice.