In this illustration Thayer shows how a peacock can disappear into its surroundings. Thayer, an American artist, devoted much of his life to understanding how animals conceal themselves in nature for survival.
In his book, Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, Thayer presented his beliefs of protective coloration as an essential factor in evolution helping animals disguise themselves from predators. He received much praise and criticism. He was extreme in his views arguing that all animal coloration was for protective purposes and failing to recognize other possible reasons such as sexual selection — characteristics for attracting a mate.
Despite these shortcomings, Thayer went on to be the first to propose camouflage for military purposes. Although his suggestions were initially rejected, his former students were among the founders of the American Camouflage Society in and his theories were eventually adopted and are still used today.
The colorful pattern on this German aircraft from World War I is called lozenge camouflage. Skip to main content.
You are here Home » The Science of Color. Sir Isaac Newton experimenting with a prism. What most people do not know is the vast history behind the color wheel and the discoveries which were integral to its invention and standardization. The first color wheel was presented by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century when he first discovered the visible spectrum of light. In his classic prism experiment, he noted that white light is composed of a variety of colors. His experimentations also led to the discovery that all secondary colors can be made by mixing primary colors.
Note the arrangement of the colors within the pattern of an octave. Left: Wolfgang von Goethe, from Theory of Colours. Instead, he insisted that darkness was an active ingredient in the production of color.
The publication Theory of Colours, although not strictly scientific, was monumental in its breadth of data and investigation. Perhaps due to his background in poetry and the arts, Goethe also went into detail about the psychological aspects of colors and their relationship to human emotions and behavioral traits.
His work was also in part a contemplation of the effects of light and dark on human color perception, such as the way in which ratios of light and dark produce differences in the color spectra. These observations led Goethe to develop his own color wheel, which is more akin to the one we use today. The colour increases in energy, and appears in red-yellow more powerful and splendid. All that we have said of yellow is applicable here, in a higher degree.
The red-yellow gives an impression of warmth and gladness, since it represents the hue of the intenser glow of fire. As pure yellow passes very easily to red-yellow, so the deepening of this last to yellow-red is not to be arrested.
The agreeable, cheerful sensation which red-yellow excites increases to an intolerably powerful impression in bright yellow-red. The active side is here in its highest energy, and it is not to be wondered at that impetuous, robust, uneducated men, should be especially pleased with this colour. In looking steadfastly at a perfectly yellow-red surface, the colour seems actually to penetrate the organ. It produces an extreme excitement, and still acts thus when somewhat darkened.
A yellow-red cloth disturbs and enrages animals. I have known men of education to whom its effect was intolerable if they chanced to see a person dressed in a scarlet cloak on a grey, cloudy day. The colours on the minus side are blue, red-blue, and blue-red. They produce a restless, susceptible, anxious impression. As yellow is always accompanied with light, so it may be said that blue still brings a principle of darkness with it.
This colour has a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye. Its appearance, then, is a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose. But as we readily follow an agreeable object that flies from us, so we love to contemplate blue -- not because it advances to us, but because it draws us after it. Blue gives us an impression of cold, and thus, again, reminds us of shade. We have before spoken of its affinity with black.
When the light came out of the prism is was not white but was of seven different colours: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. The spreading into rays was called dispersion by Newton and he called the different coloured rays the spectrum. He learnt that when the light rays were passed again through a prism the rays turned back into white light. If only one ray was passed through the prism it would come out the same colour as it went in. Newton concluded that white light was made up of seven different coloured rays.
Again note…. These are not the only colors found in white light nor not even inclusive of all non visible colors in white light. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. All rights reserved.
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