Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 260 pages of information about Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664).

Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 260 pages of information about Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664).

9.  I know not whether I should on this Occasion take notice, that when, as when looking upon the Calm and Smooth Surface of a River betwixt my Eye and the Sun, it appear’d to be a natural Speculum, wherein that Part which Reflected to my Eye the Entire and defin’d Image of the Sun, and the Beams less remote from those which exhibited That Image, appear’d indeed of a great and Whitish Brightness, but the rest Comparatively Dark enough:  if afterwards the Superficies chanc’d to be a little, but not much troubled, by a gentle Breath of Wind, and thereby reduc’d into a Multitude of Small and Smooth Speculums, the Surface of the River would suitably to the Doctrine lately deliver’d, at a Distance appear very much of Kin to White, though it would lose that Brightness or Whiteness upon the Return of the Surface to Calmness and an Uniform Level.  And I have sometimes for Tryals sake brought in by a Lenticular Glass, the Image of a River, Shin’d upon by the Sun, into an Upper Room Darkn’d, and Distant about a Quarter of a Mile from the River, by which means the Numerous Declining Surfaces of the Water appear’d so Contracted, that upon the Body that receiv’d the Images, the whole River appear’d a very White Object at two or three paces distance.  But if we drew Near it, this Whiteness appear’d to proceed from an Innumerable company of Lucid Reflections, from the several Gently wav’d Superficies of the Water, which look’d Near at hand like a Multitude of very Little, but Shining Scales of Fish, of which many did every moment Disappear, and as many were by the Sun, Wind and River generated anew.  But though this Observation seem’d Sufficiently to discover, how the Appearing Whiteness in that case was Produc’d, yet in some other cases Water may have the Same, though not so Vivid a Colour upon other Accounts; for oftentimes it happens that the Smooth Surface of the Water does appear Bright or Whitish, by reason of the Reflection not immediatly of the Images of the Sun, but of the Brightness of the Sky; and in such cases a Convenient Wind may where it passes along make the Surface look Black, by causing many such Furrows and Cavities, as may make the Inflected Superficies of the Water reflect the Brightness of the Sky rather Inward than Outward.  And again if the Wind increase into a Storm, the Water may appear White, especially near the Shore and the Ship, namely because the Rude Agitation Breaks it into Fome or Froth.  So much do Whiteness and Blackness depend upon the Disposition of the Superficial parts of a Body to Reflect the Beams of Light Inward or Outward.  But that as White Bodies reflect the most Light of any, so there Superficial Particles are, in the Sense newly Deliver’d, of a Specular Nature, I shall now further endeavour to shew both by the making of Specular bodies White, and the making of a White body Specular.

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Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.