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COLOR 
 
 IN TH?: 
 
 SCHOOL^ROOIVI. 
 
 A Ps/LANIJAL KOR TTEACHKRS. 
 
 IVLILXON BRADIvKY CO., 
 
 Springfield, Mass. 
 
Copyrighted, Isik). 
 By MIT/rOX BRADLEY ("O 
 
 sriUXCiFIELD, MASS. 
 
 :5b : 'is 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In teaching color to young children there is a great difference 
 of opinion as to methods, just as there is a difference of 
 opinion regarding all other branches of education at the pres- 
 ent time. Indeed, color teaching as a systematic branch of 
 primary education is in its infancy, consequently each educator 
 with positive ideas on the subject ought to give a fair consider- 
 ation to the opinion of all others who have experience in gen- 
 eral education and interest enough in this branch to devote to 
 it any considerable thought. 
 
 In teaching color two things at least are necessary. First, 
 we must have some standard to which we can refer all colors. 
 Second, we must have some nomenclature by which colors can 
 be known and referred to. In the spectrum are an infinite num- 
 ber of hues, six of which at least are well separated from 
 each other and by general agreement are accepted as natural 
 standards : Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet. 
 With these six colors either in pigments or in colored lights we 
 may ver}^ easily imitate the intermediate hues of the spectrum. 
 Therefore, having these six colors established and named, if we 
 can mix two of them in a definite proportion of each and record 
 this mixture in mathematical terms, we secure a nomenclature 
 for the intermediate hues and other combinations. If the pro- 
 portions used in combinations could be determined by the 
 measurement or weight of the pigments employed there might 
 have been in use, ages since, some accepted nomenclature, but 
 no argument is necessary to prove that we cannot establish 
 the hue of a compound color by either weighing or measuring 
 the pigments used to produce it. Accepting this condition, we 
 must look for some other available means, and in the Maxwell 
 
2 PREFACE. 
 
 rotating disks we find the most practicable device yet known, 
 as hy them we measure surfaces of reflected light instead of 
 weight or bulk of pigments. By these we are able with six 
 standards to produce close imitations of the intermediate spec- 
 trum hues, and other combinations. Inasmuch as pigment 
 colors cannot approach in brilliancy the colors of light, and 
 therefore all art is at best a poor imitation of nature, we nmst 
 conclude that at present, at least, we cannot establish those ab- 
 solutely perfect standards and that definite nomenclature which 
 is possible in the more exact sciences, but this should not deter 
 us from attempting the best that now seems possible, trusting 
 to others with greater experience or the aggregation of the ex- 
 perience of many others in future to perfect the work of the 
 present or to demonstrate new methods based on new discov- 
 eries and greater information. Those artists who begin color 
 education with three pigments, a red, a yellow and a blue, 
 and assume to produce from them a harmonious scale of hues 
 somewhat in imitation of the solar spectrum on which to base 
 their teaching, fall short of their aim in at least two important 
 points. First, they do not approach very closely to the spec- 
 trum hues, as it is impossible to do with any single set of three 
 pigments, and secondly, they have no accurate and uniform 
 means of naming even those special hues which they do make. 
 Therefore the next teacher of color constructs another and 
 different standard, a harmonious scale which is as devoid of all 
 nomenclature as the other, thus making confusion worse con- 
 founded. As the present indefinite condition of color in art is 
 the result of a trial of this method for hundreds of years, it 
 would seem at least reasonable to attempt a solution of the 
 difficulty in another line of investigation which promises so 
 much better results. 
 
 Instead of assuming that there are three pigment colors 
 from which all colors in nature may be produced, as is done in 
 some professed treatises on color, we deny that all colors can 
 be made from ANY SINGLE TRIAD OF PIGMENTS. Bas- 
 ing our investigations on the fact that all the colors in nature 
 
PREFACE. 8 
 
 are produced by the mixture of colored light and not of pig- 
 ments, aiul on the accepted fact that in the solar spectrum, we 
 have a complete analysis of light into its simple elements and 
 that with six of those colors we can by mechanical combination 
 very closely imitate all the intermediate hues, we attempt to 
 suggest a line of color study and investigation which shall at 
 once, be simple and scientific. We also maintain that this line 
 is as applicable to aesthetic effects in its higher grades as any 
 other system which is not founded on a scientific basis. If 
 there is truth in the theory at present accepted that white light, 
 the sum of all the colors in nature, can be produced from three 
 colors, these certainly are not red, yellow and blue, but, ac- 
 cording to the Young theory, they are red, green and violet. 
 
 If, however, we accept the six spectrum colors, w^e can pro- 
 duce with them very close imitations of the other spectrum 
 colors and the other colors of nature, both in light and in pig- 
 ments. Therefore as nature has provided itself with these 
 colors which have been so long recognized and accepted as 
 standards, why not adopt them and save further trouble? 
 
 While it may be possible to produce an unlimited number of 
 other scales of colors w^hich may be near or remote imitations 
 of the standard nature has set for us in the solar spectrum and 
 made familiar in the clouds, who shall assume to say which 
 of them all must be accepted as a universal standard. Hav- 
 ing adopted the six spectrum colors as standards, we believe 
 the rotating disks are the most practicable and valuable means 
 for making combinations and for establishing a scientific no- 
 menclature of colors. Therefore an educational line of colored 
 papers has been manufactured, which is offered as a fair repre- 
 sentation of the standards and some of their combinations with 
 each other and with black and white by means of the rotating 
 disks. To these may be added many colors, possibly more 
 beautiful in themselves, and in their combinations, than is 
 found in this limited educational list, but when the results 
 educationally are considered we claim that the superiority of 
 these colors for educational work will be generally conceded. 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 Thus far the study of color has been from two different 
 stand-points, and little attempt has been made to combine the 
 two in any practical system. The scientist has analyzed sun- 
 light and by experiment demonstrated many valuable facts 
 concerning the laws which govern the colors of objects in na- 
 ture. By the artist these demonstrations are deemed to be of 
 very little value, because the scientist must deal with the im- 
 material colors of light, while the painter has only to consider 
 the use of pigments, hence there is very little in common to 
 both. But to an educator who is neither a professional scien- 
 tist nor an artist it seems that, inasmuch as all color is derived 
 solely from one source, namely sunlight, there must be a philo- 
 sophical connection between the two classes of students that 
 ouoht to be established. The artists on one side assert that 
 there are three pigments, red, yellow and blue, from which all 
 others can be made, and their natural deduction from the prop- 
 osition is that there can be no mathematical or mechanical 
 formulas established for the construction of colors and hence 
 no rules for producing aesthetic combinations of colors, conse- 
 quently all art education in color must be imparted personally 
 to the pupil by a teacher who has himself received a complete 
 art education. The scientist separates sunlight, the source of 
 all color, into its simple elements as shown in the solar spec- 
 trum, and with these colors he produces by combination vari- 
 ous other colors which may be definitely recorded and shows 
 that all the colors in nature are produced by a separation of 
 these elements by methods for which he has formulated plausi- 
 ble theories. 
 
 It is the object of this book to harmonize these two phases 
 of color education and to present apparatus and material for 
 primary color teaching, also furnishing the primary teacher 
 who may not have been favored with an art education, with 
 sufficient information to begin the use of the material at hand 
 in a systematic way and to inspire a desire for further informa- 
 tion in this most fascinating line of investigation. We claim 
 that, as stated by the scientists, the solar spectrum gives us 
 
PREFACE. o 
 
 the colors from wliicli all otlier colors in nature are produced, 
 thr.t all the effects seen in nature by the artist are produced by 
 a combination of these colored lights which are retlected to his 
 eye, and hence his otlice is to imitate such colors to the best of 
 his ability with the pio:ment colors at his command. The study 
 of color is one thing and the study of pigments is another, al- 
 though practically and closely related to it. 
 
 If color teaching is to be accomplished by any other method 
 than personal instruction there must be some systematic no- 
 menclature of colors which shall be as definite as possible, by 
 which the printed page may communicate information in this 
 as well as in all other branches of education. 
 
 The instruction in our public schools should aim at such 
 practical and wage-earning results as are compatible with true 
 education, and hence in teaching color those scientific facts 
 should be emphasized which when undc rstood will avoid that 
 defect Avhich a prominent w^riter attributes to English manu- 
 factures previous to the revival of art in manufactures which 
 was inspired by the great world's exhibition of 1851, when he 
 says : — 
 
 "Color, a universal source of enjoyment, so essential an 
 element of decorative art, has not been hitherto the subject of 
 such investigations as to place its powers, harmonies and dis- 
 cordances among matters of scientific certainty. A few tradi- 
 tionary dogmjjs have been the only guide of ordinar}^ workmen, 
 while success in design, as well as in the higher regions of art, 
 has been dependent upon that rare union of faculties vaguely 
 denoted by the indefinite, unsatisfactory term, 'taste.' " 
 
 No candid student of this color question will deny that all 
 true laws in harmonies and contrasts are as applicable to high 
 art as to decorative art. 
 
 Hitherto all attempts to teach color in the primary grades, if 
 governed by any knowledge of the subject, have been almost 
 wholly from the {esthetic side, while the science of color as 
 briefly suggested in the school text-books on physics has been 
 separated from the artistic consideration of the subject. Al- 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 though from a scientific stand-point the claim has constantly 
 been made that the solar spectrum furnishes the onl}- standard 
 of colors which is worthy of the name, yet few artists have 
 been willing to acknowledge this fact, or if they have done so 
 it has been with a shrug of the shoulders. A striking illustra- 
 tion of this statement is found in the elaborate color chart of 
 Dr. Hugo Magnus and Prof. B. Joy Jeffries, published a few- 
 years ago. AVhile the red, orange and yellow given in this 
 chart approach the spectrum standards, the green, blue and 
 violet vary widely from spectrum colors and the shades and 
 tints are made up without strict regard to scientific truth. And 
 if this is the case with so good an authority as Dr. Jeffries 
 what could be expected of the average artist and art teacher ? 
 It has often been said that while the colors of the spectrum are 
 well known they can not be used in any way for establishing 
 standards. This proposition we do not admit, but, on the other 
 hand, affirm that the spectrum is the only source from which to 
 determine standards and that the combinations of the colored 
 rays of light, from these standards without the mechanical mix- 
 ture of pigments, are the only sources of other standards to which 
 all colors must be referred. Even the best educated eyes do not 
 agree as to the more subtle color combinations, but this is also 
 true in music and literature and is no argument against the 
 possible establishment of a science of color which shall apply 
 to art. If things assumed to be true in this book are later 
 proved to be untrue it will be nothing more than has occurred 
 in similar attempts along other lines for ages. Therefore we 
 begin with the simplest problems in color and give only those 
 facts necessary to present this phase of the matter, namely, 
 color education, leaving the study of the deeper truths to be 
 presented to those who care for them by scientists and artists 
 who have written and will continue to write more elaborate 
 treatises on this subject. The necessity for condensation 
 makes it impossible for us to state all the facts with such sci- 
 entific exactness as would naturally be desired by critical 
 readers, but an attempt is made to avoid any statement that 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 may be misleading or is absolutely incorrect. In some cases 
 repetitions of statements occur because it seems desirable to 
 bring them into connection with new truths or theories more 
 forcibly than could otherwise be done. 
 
 The book is not in any sense a manual of instruction as to 
 the details of teaching color, neither shall we undertake to say 
 exactly which combinations of colors are the best. But the 
 general laws of color and color combinations are so stated as 
 to give the teacher hints as to the directions in which she may 
 expect to find good combinations, so as to help her to feel the 
 combinations for herself and lead the children to the same 
 results. 
 
 A review of the various authors on color has convinced us 
 of the want of some popular elementary treatise concerning this 
 subject, a want that is at least suggested by the fact that the 
 erroneous statement that blue and yellow light combined make 
 green occurs in at least three valuable and popular books. 
 First, in a recent text book prepared especially for primary 
 education in natural sciences. Second, in a valuable treatise 
 on water-color painting. Third, in one of the most popular 
 and standard cyclopedias. How many more similar errors 
 may be found b}^ more extended examination remains to be 
 seen, but these serve to enforce the fact that very little 
 thought has been given to the science of color by writers on 
 art subjects. 
 
 The last two chapters of this book are written by a teacher 
 who has had considerable experience in color instruction in the 
 public schools. They are intended chiefly as hints to beginners 
 in this line of work, as each teacher will, of course, adopt certain 
 methods of her own, as they from time to time suggest them- 
 selves to her. A list of a few books of moderate size and cost 
 is appended, to which any one may refer who has the interest 
 to warrant a little time for the further investigation of a sub- 
 ject which becomes very fascinating to those who are willing 
 to enroll themselves as its votaries. 
 
 Perhaps no other single book will give so clearly and briefly 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 the general infcrmation ou color required by the teacher as the 
 Student's Text Book of Color ; or Modern Chromatics with 
 Applications to Art and Industry, by O. N. Rood, Professor of 
 Physics in Columbia College, D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
 
 Another valuable book is The Theory of Color in its Rela- 
 tion to Art and Art Industry, by Dr. AVilhelm Yon Bezold, 
 Professor of Physics at the Royal Polytechnic School at 
 Munich and Member of the Royal Bavarian Academy of 
 Sciences, Translated frcm the German by S. R. Koehler, with 
 an introduction by Edward C. Pickering, Professor of Physics, 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, L. Prang & Co., Bos- 
 ton. This book is more extended in certain lines of thought 
 and not as comprehensive as the first named and is invaluable 
 to any one interested in the subject of which it treats, namely, 
 the application of the science of color to the fine arts. 
 
 A third book worthy of consideration is The Laws of the 
 Contrasts of Color and their Application to the Arts of Paint- 
 ing, Decoration of Buildings, Mosaic Work, Tapestry and 
 Carpet Weaving, Calico Printing, etc., by M. Chevreul, Di- 
 rector of the dye works of the Gobelin, George Routledge & 
 Sons, London. The author of this work was in charge of 
 the dye works of the celebrated Gobelin manufacturers and 
 all his deductions are in strict accord with actual experience. 
 On the subject of harmonies and contrasts no other work of 
 its size contains so much truth. 
 
 In addition to what is found in these and other books ou 
 color, much information may be obtained from any modern 
 editions of cyclopedias under the two heads of Light and Color. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. 
 
 I. The Necessity of Color Teachinu: in Primar}'^ 
 
 Schools ..... 
 
 II. Color Definitions .... 
 
 III. Color Blindness .... 
 
 r\". The Theory of Light and Color 
 
 V. Is There a Standard of Color? 
 
 VI. How to Utilize the Spectrum as a Standard of 
 
 Color ..... 
 
 VII. The Use of the Rotating Disks 
 
 VIII. The Demand for a Definite Color Nomenclature 
 
 IX. The Proper Combination of Colors . 
 
 X. The Bradley Scheme of Colored Papers 
 
 XI. Colored Paper in the School-Room 
 
 XII. Water Colois in the School-Room 
 
 Page. 
 
 13 
 
 18 
 25 
 30 
 39 
 
 47 
 52 
 
 GO 
 67 
 71) 
 83 
 04 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF COLOR TEACHING IN 
 PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 mHY is it essential to teach children the facts relating 
 to color? 
 
 Because there is so much color in nature and we aim to bring 
 the child into the closest possible sympathy with nature. Be- 
 cause his color perceptions need cultivation, just as much as 
 his musical or mathematical perceptions, his appreciation of a 
 correct literary style, or in fact, any of his faculties that one 
 may choose to name. Unless he is color-trained he cannot en- 
 ter into a full enjoyment of the beautiful, which the Greeks 
 regarded as equivalent to the world itself, using the same word 
 to denote the earth and the beautiful. 
 
 We should teach the child color not only for the sake of 
 beauty but also for the sake of business. Pearly color educa- 
 tion, properly conducted, will detect any tendencies toward 
 color blindness which he may possess, may help him in the 
 fortunate choice of a vocation and prove a strong factor of his 
 success through life, besides adding immensely to his avenues 
 for healthful enjoyment in all the paths of life. 
 
 That the harmonious combinations and contrasts of different 
 colors constitute one of our greatest sources of pleasure, few 
 of us will care to deny, and it is equally evident that in nu- 
 merous lines of business an understanding of the correct use of 
 color is of great commercial service. But while tlie value of a 
 trained color-sense is unquestioned, we are confronted with the 
 sad reality that half the people of the present day have no true 
 perceptions of the values of colors, or of the effect of colors 
 on each other in combinations. 
 
U COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Even a casual consideration of this subject must convince us 
 that for the majority of the human race to be ignorant of the 
 simplest principles of the harmonies and pleasing contrasts in 
 colors is simply absurd, and it follows that a considerable per- 
 centage of them are regarded as color-blind because they are 
 color-ignorant. 
 
 It is high-time to set aside the notion that a knowledge of 
 colors and their combinations in the arts is beneath the dignity 
 of business men and also of women of affairs. The fact that 
 any people who are ambitious to excel in the industrial arts, 
 to say nothing of fine art, must in their primary education 
 lay the foundation for a knowledge of the beautiful in form 
 and color is too patent for argument, and if there is to be any 
 reform in the community in this direction it must come through 
 the education of children. Until within a very few years there 
 has been no teaching of color in the primary schools, the only 
 instruction ever attempted being confined to the closing mouths 
 of a high school or college course and limited to a few general 
 observations in connection with the study of physics. By this 
 time the perceptive faculties which the pupils possessed in 
 early childhood have become measurably blunted, unless, as in 
 rare cases, they have received careful cultivation along those 
 lines oi research into the mysteries of nature which should be 
 delightful to every child. Consequently these advanced pupils 
 are not in the best condition to appreciate and utilize what 
 little color teaching is given them. 
 
 That color is one of the earliest subjects which should be 
 taught in any educational course is evident from the fact that 
 some bright color is the first thing to attract the infant's eye, 
 winning his notice before he pays any attention to form. No 
 branch of primary education is more lauded in these latter days 
 than form study, which can be made a fascination to the 
 youngest pupil and is the basis of drawing in all its varied de- 
 partments, but color comes before form and accompanies it 
 through all its exhibitions in art and nature. The study of 
 color and form should therefore go hand in hand, and then we 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 15 
 
 may hope to see a rapid crystalization of certain truths regard- 
 ing color which have been felt but not clearly stated by the 
 great artists of the past. This result can only be reached 
 through man}' experiments and not a few blunders, because of 
 the present lack of instructors who are well qualified to lay 
 down and successfully carry out a general scheme of color- 
 education. That the few normal art schools which are located 
 at some of our educational centers are doing excellent work and 
 making themselves widely felt in the right direction through 
 their graduates is not to be denied by those conversant with 
 the facts, but as regards the rank and file of public school 
 teachers it must be admitted that our successful teachers are 
 not experienced artists and the distinguished artists who might 
 be called in to carry on the work are not skilled in educational 
 processes. The two classes must come together, so that those 
 things in art and nature which are now mysteries to the masses 
 can be made as simple as those other things in science which 
 were but lately wrapped in obscurity, so far as the multitude 
 were concerned. If new truths are being daily discovered 
 in science by men who have not hitherto been regarded as 
 learned, is it impossible that we may yet see Xewtons and 
 Edisons in nrt who shall be able to hand dowm to the common 
 people the great mysteries of the beautiful? 
 
 Granting that the subject of color has an aesthetic and prac- 
 tical value and should be taught in our public schools, a multi- 
 tude of queries as to time, ways, means and aims will force 
 themselves on the teacher who is about to enter this untried 
 field of instruction. Some of these questions it will be possi- 
 ble to answer in advance. The uncertainty which clings to 
 others can only be dispelled, if at all, in the school of experi- 
 ence. In the color-education of the past, two things, which 
 although intimately related in practice are absolutely distinct, 
 have been sadly, confused. The training of the eye to match 
 and analyze colors and to make good combinations and detect 
 l)ad ones, is wholly separate from the ability to produce the va- 
 .rious. colors with pigments. The first process is adapted to 
 
16 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 the comprehension of the youngest children and may be carried 
 on in a large school and at a moderate cost. But while this 
 grade of work is being done the minds of both teacher and 
 pupils should be relieved from the necessity of considering the 
 technical methods of mixing and applying pigments. The eye 
 should first be trained by the familiar use of properly graded 
 colors, ready prepared, and for this purpose no material is as 
 good or as economical as a line of colored papers which repre- 
 sents correct standards. After the children have been taught 
 to recognize from fifty to one hundred or more well-selected 
 colors and to know them as familiar friends in all their best 
 combinations, as well as to avoid the many combinations 
 which are not pleasing, then the use of pigments either in 
 water or oil, with which to match the colors already known and 
 to produce hundreds of others, will add pleasure to the study 
 and require much less care on the teaclier's part. 
 
 Those natural artists who were born with a knowledire of 
 color have, in spite of poverty, lack of fine colors, and good 
 imjilements, done artistic work, while other students of ''paint- 
 ing" who have been provided with the most expensive materials 
 and implements but without a trained eye for color have been 
 unable to produce even a respectable picture after years of 
 effort, thus showing that the knowledge of color is more import 
 ant than the knowledge of methods. Witfi the very best of 
 training few pupils can become artists worthy of the name, 
 neither, on the other hand, does color-education necessarily 
 have for its end the making of artists. It does aim, however, 
 to train the eye to recognize, compare and analyze colors, and 
 also to teach the names of those colors. 
 
 The teacher who has persuaded herself of the necessity of 
 teaching color in the school-room will naturally wish to ])egin 
 with the little children. But, as has already been intimated, if 
 she is wise, she will not undertake to teach them anything of 
 the science of color. Their color-sense does not depend on 
 that science, neither will their ability to combine color, after 
 they have been properly instructed. Nevertheless, while it is 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 17 
 
 imnecessary for the child to master tlie science of color or even 
 to know that there is such a thing, it is important that the 
 teacher herself should be thoroughly conversant with the essen- 
 tial facts pertaining to the science, otherwise her teaching is 
 very liable to be "wide of the mark." Many books have al- 
 ready been published on the science of color and the artistic 
 use of color. But whether any or all of them are calculated to 
 give the unscientific and inartistic primary teacher just the help 
 needed may well be questioned. AVhat she wants to know is 
 iiow she can best instruct her pupils to distinguish the different 
 colors from each other and give them correct names, as well as 
 to know which of them can be brought together with good 
 effects. 
 
18 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 COLOR DEFINITIONS. 
 
 ^ N attempt will be made in this chapter to explain cei'tain 
 f^ terms pertaining to the science of color which are liable 
 to occur at any point in the following pages, so that they may 
 -be understood whenever met, although the reader must remem- 
 ber that the use of some of these terms is so varied by dif- 
 ferent authors of recognized authority, and tiiat a number are 
 so vaguely employed in general, that the task of evolving defi- 
 nitions which are entirely satisfactory to all who deal with 
 color may be regarded at the outset as nlmost liopeless. This 
 chapter, however, undertakes to give the most fi-( (lucntly ac- 
 cepted use of the commonest terms, and also to modestly sug- 
 gest a more definite basis for color terms, something which 
 should interest all artists, as well as all teachers of color. 
 
 Puke Color. — A pure color, otherwise called a saturated 
 color, is the most intense form of that color without the 
 admixture of white, as for instance, the reddest possible red 
 and the bluest blue, etc. The same meaning is sometimes in- 
 tended by the phrase " a full color." A color is pure as it 
 approaches the corresponding color found in the spectrum, l)ut 
 all material colors contain a large percentage of wliite light. 
 We must, therefore, select the quality of color by compari- 
 son with the spectrum, and then get the purest or most intense 
 expression of that color which is possible in pigments. For 
 example, we must for the green select a color wliicli wlicn held 
 in a strong light will show the same kind of green as that part 
 of the spectrum which is by general consent called the greenest 
 green, and then we must get the most intense expression of 
 that green which is possible with the pigments at our com- 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. ly 
 
 iiuiiul. The color will then fall far short of the spectrum 
 sttiiulard, because all surfaces reflect some white ligiit, which 
 inevitably reduces the fullness of the color. For a further 
 explanation of this retlection of light see Chapter IV. 
 
 Purity. — The word purity is often used by artists in a sense 
 entirely different from pure when applied to a color. A paint- 
 ing which has no tendency to dullness or grayness in the tints 
 is admired for its purity. 
 
 Local Color. — This term is applied to the natural color of 
 an object when seen in ordinary daylight and at a convenient 
 distance, as a sheet of paper at arm's length, a tree at twice 
 its height, etc. The true local color of any object is not visi- 
 ble in full sunlight, being then lost in light, nor in shade, for 
 then it is more or less absorbed in darkness, or it may be 
 altered by accidental influences, such as reflections from sur- 
 rounding objects or other effect of colored light. Owing to 
 these influences it follows that in nature very little of the local 
 color of an object is depicted, neither should the student be 
 anxious to show it as he knows it to be, but rather as it ap- 
 pears at the time when he is studying it. 
 
 Accidental or Complementary Colors. — When the eye has 
 been strongly impressed with any particular species of colored 
 light, and when m this state it looks at a sheet of white paper, 
 the paper does not appear to it white, or of the color with 
 which the eye was impressed, but tinged wnth a different color, 
 which is said to be the accidental of the first color> If we 
 place, for example, a bright red disk upon a sheet of white 
 paper, and fix the eye steadily upon a mark in the center of 
 it, and then turn the eye on the white paper, we shall see 
 a circular spot of bluish-green light the size of the disk, 
 but much less intense. This color, which is called the acci- 
 dental color of red, will gradually fade away. The bluish- 
 green image of the wafer is called an ocular spectrum, because 
 it is impressed on the eye and may be carried about with it for 
 a short time. It is also called the opposite color, because if a 
 color scale is formed by uniting the solar spectrum at the ends, 
 
20 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 thus forming a circle, the accidental colors are approximately 
 opposite each other. The accidental colors are also called 
 complementary colors, because if the two colors reduced to 
 equal intensities are combined they form white light, thus being 
 complementary to each other. The accidental color of black is 
 white. The term harmonic has been applied to the accidental 
 or complementary color adopted from the theory of music, and 
 it is generally supposed that complementary colors harmonize 
 with each other, although this does not seem to be true in its 
 best sense. 
 
 Broken Colors or Broken Tints. — These words when prop- 
 erly used apply to colors mixed with gray, i. e., with both black 
 and white. 
 
 Brightness or Luminosity. — The brightness or luminosity of 
 a color is determined by comparing it with neutral grays. If, 
 for example, we place on a rotating spindle a large red disk 
 and in front of it combined white and bhick disks of a smaller 
 diameter, and rotate them, the red is not changed, ])ut the 
 white and black disks are resolved into a gray. The white and 
 black disks may be adjusted till the gray seems to be of the 
 same brightness as the red, i. e., neither lighter nor darker. 
 When this result is secured the gray is the measure of the lumi- 
 nosity of the red, and may be recorded by the proportions tliat 
 the white and black sectors each bear to the whole circle. 
 
 Ray of Light. — The finest supposable element of light- 
 impression in the eye. 
 
 Beam of Light. — A number of rays. 
 
 Primary Colors. — In the scheme of color based on tlie 
 mixture of red, yellow and blue to make all others, these 
 three are called the primary colors. 
 
 Tertiary Colors. — The various colors made by mixing 
 orange, green and purple pigments are classed as russet, 
 olive and citrine, and are called tertiaries. Orange and 
 purple, mixed in various proportions, form a line of russets. 
 Purple and green form olives and green and orange produce 
 citrines. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 21 
 
 Tint. — In a dollnite sense this word seems to be ap})li('(l hy 
 the best authorities to any color mixed with white or reduced 
 by white light, and in opposition to shade or shadow, whicli in- 
 indcates the absence of light, or in material colors the mixture 
 of black. In nature the scale of a color in tints and shades is 
 seen on the surface of a cylinder where the local color occu- 
 pies but a narrow stripe and runs into tints toward the high 
 light and into shades and shadow on the opposite side. In 
 some recognized authorities the term tints is confounded with 
 hues, but there seems to be no good reason for this use of 
 it. Shades is often used in a similar way, but all such sig- 
 nifications appear to add unnecessary difficulties and to make 
 still more indefinite a subject already attended with no little 
 confusion. 
 
 Hue. — It is very difficult to express any difference between 
 a hue and a color where the word is used alone, but the term 
 "' hue of a color" should be applied exclusively to the modifica- 
 tions which a color receives from the addition of a quantity of 
 another color, usually a comparatively small quantity. For 
 example, a blue with a small quantity of green added gives a 
 green hue of blue. If so much green is added that the re- 
 sultant color appears more like green than blue it becomes a 
 blue hue of green. There is a point at which it may be diffi- 
 cult to decide whether the combination is blue or green, at 
 which stage it may with some justice be designated blue and 
 green. 
 
 Tune. — Any attempt to express the shades of meaning given 
 to this word in high art would be useless, but it is evidently 
 derived from music and has the same general meaning as ap- 
 plied either to music or color. A full-toned picture, for ex- 
 ample, is one in which the full or saturated colors are used 
 freely, and a deep or low-toned picture is one in which the 
 colors are mixed with black, or colors nearly allied to it. But 
 one writer on art, after devoting considerable space to an expla- 
 nation of the term, remarks, "We use this term very freely, far 
 too freely, and thus render its signification very vague." Under 
 
22 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 these circumstances it would not seem very desirable to intro- 
 duce the word here, or to attempt its definition if it had no more 
 definite meaning, but there is one use of the word for which 
 there seems to be no recognized substitute. If we have a pure 
 or full color graduated by a succession of steps to a light tint 
 on one side and a deep shade on the other we have a scale of 
 that color, so that each step is called a tone in that color scale 
 and the full color may be called the key or key -tone in that scale. 
 Thus far there seems to be this one definite use for the word, 
 and possibly it would be well if the meaning of tone could be 
 limited to this use exclusively. If we in connection with this 
 definition of tone apply '' hues " to indicate the variations in 
 the key-colors and designate each key-hue by its symbol, using 
 tones for the modification of each key-color by the mixture of 
 white and black, much seems to be gained in definiteness of 
 terms. 
 
 In this connection an English writer of note says : ''Tints 
 contain differing amounts of white, shades contain differing 
 amounts of black, broken tints contain differing amounts of 
 gray, all these are tones. "When a series of tones is said to 
 constitute a scale it is formed by the addition of equal incre- 
 ments of the modifying element. Each hue admits of three 
 scales, the reduced scale made up of tints, the darkened scale 
 made up of shades, the dulled scale made up of broken tints." 
 
 This division of each scale into two parts, one above and 
 one below the normal color, is not common, if indeed it is 
 desirable. 
 
 A Scale of Color. — By these words we mean the entire 
 range of tints and shades between the pure or saturated color 
 and white on one side and black on the other. See definition 
 of tone. 
 
 This word scale is sometimes applied to the various hues of 
 a standard, thus a scale of yellows means the various hues from 
 green yellow to orange yellow, but this double use of the same 
 term tends to confusion, and as the first use is the more common 
 and important it would be well if it could become the only one. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 23 
 
 This term is also employed to denote the relative degrees 
 that the tones of a picture hold to nature or to each other. 
 For example, a picture may be executed in a high scale 
 when pure white is introduced and the tints are graduated 
 with reference to that color or descend rapidly from a 
 small portion of high light to a middle tone, but graduat- 
 ing more slowly in the deeper tones. 
 
 Cold Coloks. — The cold colors are said to be green, blue 
 and violet. 
 
 Warm Colors. — These are designated as red, orange and 
 yellow. 
 
 The Solar Spectrum — When a beam of light is admitted into 
 a darkened room through a very narrow slit, and transmitted 
 through a triangular glass prism on to a white surface within 
 the room, it is separted into an indefinite number of colors. 
 Under such circumstances this beam of light is readily ana- 
 lyzed, as it forms a variegated band of colors, beginning at 
 one end with a dark crimson hue, and gradually changing 
 
 into a bright scarlet, which runs into an orange and then 
 through yellow, green and blue to violet, which color gradu- 
 ally fades away into the darkness from which the red at the 
 other end emerged. This display is termed the solar spec- 
 trum, and constitutes the only known standard of colors. 
 
 If in place of a solid glass prism w^e use a triangular glass 
 bottle tilled with bisulphide of carbon, a longer spectrum is 
 
24 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 formed. The explanation of the phenomenon of the spectrum 
 is found in the fact that the beam of sunlight is composed of 
 a great number of different kinds of ra3^s which in passing- 
 through the prism are refracted or bent from their direct course, 
 and some are bent more than others ; the red least of all and 
 the violet most. This refraction is illustrated by the cut, on 
 the preceding page, in which the dotted lines represents the 
 rays of light passing through the triangular prism with V 
 (violet) at the top and R, (red) at the bottom. If the beam 
 of light can be brought into the room horizontally it is better 
 to use a vertical slit and stand the prism on end, thus securing 
 a horizontal spectrum instead of a vertical one. 
 
 Harmony. — Two colors are said to be in harmony when after 
 being placed in juxtaposition the effect is pleasing to the eye. 
 Harmony may be divided into Harmony of Analogy and Har- 
 mony of Contrast. Harmony of Analogy may exist between 
 two tones of the same scale, or between two hues in both of 
 which some one color predominates. Pairs of complementary 
 colors or accidental colors approximate harmonious contrasts, 
 but do not always seem to fuHlU all the necessar}^ conditions, 
 and thus far no definite rules for producing this effect in per- 
 fection have been elaborated. 
 
 Ruskin gives the following additional definitions : — 
 
 Harmony of Contrast. — Two very distant tones of same 
 scale of hues. Tones of different depths belonging to neigh- 
 boring scales harmonize. 
 
 Harmony of Analogy of Scale. — Different tones of same 
 scale more or less approximate. 
 
 Harmony of Analogy of Hi'es. — Tones of the same or 
 nearly the same depth of neighboring scales. 
 
 Harmony of a Dominant Colored Light. — Various colors 
 assorted after the law of contrasts, but one of them predomi- 
 nating, as if viewed with a colored light or through a colored 
 glass. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COLOR BLINDNESS. 
 
 THIS phase of our subject is considered here by wa}^ of 
 emphasizing the necessity of teaching color in the public 
 schools, from a practical stand-point. The term color blindness 
 is so common at the present day that few people are ignorant of 
 its general meaning. The fact that many states employ officers 
 to visit the public schools to determine by examination whether 
 the children have a normal i)erception of the different colors 
 and the systematic examination of applicants for positions of 
 locomotive engineers and marine pilots make it evident that 
 there is a considerable part of the people whose color vision is 
 defective, and that this defect is a matter of great moment, not 
 only to the individuals themselves, but also to the public, 
 whose lives are liable to be imperiled, unless its existence is 
 discovered. Moreover, the interests of the children are at 
 stake in this matter, because their lifework may turn out a 
 failure, owing to the wrong choice of an occupation through 
 ignorance of the existence of color blindness. A curious thing 
 about this whole subject is the necessity which exists of calling 
 in experts to ascertain whether a company of children who have 
 ])een for a number of years under teachers supposed to be 
 fully competent to carry them through all the essential educa- 
 tional processes are color blind or not. If color instruction 
 iiad been properly given there ought to be no doubt in the 
 teacher's mind regarding any pupil. Some adults are, doubt- 
 less, to a certain extent color blind who do not suspect the fact, 
 while others would have their alleged color blindness cleared 
 away in a very considerable degree if they should become bet- 
 ter informed about color, for, out of the number of people who 
 
26 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 are in no sense color blind very few can properly name or de- 
 scribe colors, except in the most general way. They simply 
 have not been taught to recognize and analyze colors and give 
 them correct names. 
 
 It has been determined by a series of recorded experiments 
 extending through a period of several years, that about six per 
 cent of the people are so deficient in their perceptions of color 
 that they must be regarded as color blind, as this term is used ; 
 but there are so many varieties and degrees of this defect or dis- 
 ease that the general name color blindness conveys a very indef- 
 nite impression of the real facts. 
 
 Speaking in a general way, color blindness is the want of 
 connection between the light reflected from any object and the 
 consciousness of the person. Experts cannot tell in all cases 
 whether the difficulty is with the eye or the brain. For prac- 
 tical purposes this uncertainty is not important to the primary 
 teacher, because genuine color blindness has thus far been con- 
 sidered incurable, consequently the only important fact for the 
 teacher to determine is whether certain defects equivalent to 
 either partial or total color blindness exist. 
 
 If a pupil has no real color blindness, education in color will 
 have the same effect that it does in any other line. A child 
 who is simply dull can make the same progress in color as in 
 any other subject in which he is slow to learn, and because of 
 his general mental incapacity should have special attention 
 paid him by the teacher. On he other hand, if he is really 
 color blind in any degree and the facts can be discerned by the 
 teacher, the pupil and his parents should be informed of the 
 impediment, as the knowledge of it may be of vital importance 
 in choosing his life occupation. If the difficulty is but slight 
 and its nature and extent are known, much may be done to 
 compensate for the unfortunate deficiency, as well as to avoid 
 unjust censure for inattention, which results from a disease or 
 deformity. We shall therefore attempt, in the briefest pos- 
 sible way, to explain the commonest forms of this difficulty 
 and describe the best methods of making the necessary tests. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 27 
 
 To u person who is totally color bliiul nil colors appear as 
 differeut shades of neutral grays. This form is so very rare 
 that it requires little attention here, as it will naturally be dis- 
 covered in a child at a very early age. Of partial color blind- 
 ness there are three kinds most connnon, red, green and violet 
 blindness, the latter being very much less frequent than the 
 other two, and the red being apparently much more so than the 
 green. In the first-named form of partial color blindness the 
 perception of red is very weak, or entirely wanting and the 
 person afflicted with it sees only green, violet or blue. In 
 green color blindness the red and violet are seen and the green 
 appears to be a gray or brown . In violet blindness the percep- 
 tion of blue or violet would be very weak, or entirely wanting. 
 As stated above, this form is very rare, the general difficulty 
 being with red or green. 
 
 Sometimes people experience considerable difficulty in re- 
 membering the names of the different colors, although the dif- 
 ference between the colors is readily perceived. In such cases 
 the trouble is due entirely to the brain, and much can undoubt-^ 
 edly be done to advance the color education of these people by 
 patient drill. This condition of affairs does not seem to be 
 really a case of color blindness. Therefore all tests of color 
 perception should be entirely separated from the names of the 
 colors, and the only practical resort is found in assorting a 
 large number of different colors which are of such hues as to 
 be definitely classified and yet of suthcient variety to afford a 
 test. A considerable variety of shades and tints of each of a 
 large number of hues should be used. In the absence of any 
 other material easily obtained and sufficiently diversified in 
 colors, Berlin worsteds have usually been recommended, but 
 the teacher who employs in her school work a line of colored 
 papers of suitable variety and selection need go no farther for 
 the very best medium. In fact, it will be impossible for a child 
 who lacks a normal perception of color to receive proper in- 
 struction and drill in color for a year or two without showing 
 his defficiency. When this is divulged to the teacher she is in 
 
28 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 duty bound to investigate the matter and by long continued 
 tests, if necessary, to determine whether it is a case of genuine 
 color blindness or not. 
 
 According to the scientific theory there are three sets of color 
 fibres, or nerves in the retina of the eye, one set being most af- 
 fected by red, another by green and the third by violet. This 
 theory also assumes that when one of these sets of nerves is 
 paralyzed or becomes inactive the person is made color blind as 
 regards that particular color, consequently we have red blind- 
 ness, green blindness, and violet blindness. Therefore as the 
 entire paralysis of the three sets of nerves is very uncommon, 
 we rarely meet with a case of complete color blindness. But 
 we do find every grade of this disease, so that it is impossible 
 to draw the line at which a person can be said to be color 
 blind. 
 
 The only way to ascertain the condition of any one with ref- 
 erence to his color perception is by having him compare colors 
 and not by naming them. Formerly color charts were used 
 for testing color blindness in children, the teacher showing the 
 colors to the pupils and asking the names. But a child soon 
 learned, from hearing the others recite, which spot was red, 
 which green, etc., so that the amount of information which the 
 teacher was able to obtain proved quite restricted and the 
 natural desires of the child to show that he possessed as much 
 knowledge as his mates stimulated him to unintentionally de- 
 ceive the teacher. The better way of detecting color blind- 
 ness is !:hrough selections made by each pupil. Let the teacher 
 pick out some one color and, showing it to the child, ask him 
 to choose one or more exactly like it. Then let him pick out 
 others similar in color, the tints of some color and the shades 
 of some color, aftei^ard assorting the different colors. If all 
 colors at different times are persistently confounded with neu- 
 trals or yellowish grays there must be a degree of general 
 color blindness. If a child is color blind to red and has a 
 normal perception of green and violet he will see in the various 
 reds and oranges either various shades of neutral grays or 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 2!) 
 
 yellow iiiays. If reds and greens are confounded there is 
 either a red blindness or a green blindness, or both. The 
 violet blindness, if it ever occurs, which is as yet a matter of 
 some doubt, would, of course, be indicated by the confusing 
 of violet and blue with neutrals or with reds. 
 
 The number of cases of color blindness which have been 
 carefully tested and the results recorded and published is so 
 small and the conditions as reported are so varied that, thus 
 far it seems impossible to establish any classification which will 
 enable a non-professional to determine just the kind or degree 
 of color blindness which exists in a given case. There are a 
 few things, however, which if definitely ascertained offer direct 
 evidence that this condition of the color sense is abnormal and 
 will warrant the teacher in suggesting that the child be ex- 
 amined regarding his color blindness by an expert. 
 
 It is a prevalent idea that the number of color blind women 
 is very much less than that of men, and much time has been 
 spent in debating this question, but some doubt remains as to 
 whether this opinion does not obtain because the girls are 
 brought so much more intimately into relation with colored 
 materials in selecting their articles of dress and in this way 
 come to know the names of colors much better and in fact en- 
 joy a much better color education than the men. A correct 
 decision can better be reached when both the boys and girls 
 receive a systematic color education and their color sense is 
 more equally cultivated. At present this difference seems to 
 favor the theory that a very large part of the apparent defi- 
 ciency in the color sense of men may be overcome by proper 
 train ino; in childhood. 
 
30 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE THEORY OF LIGHT AND COLOR. 
 
 1^ AVING hinted at the necessity of research regarding the 
 
 ^l science of color by those teachers who wish to give 
 color instruction to children, we shall now attempt for their 
 benefit a condensed statement of the theory of light, and its 
 relation to color, because a knowledge of these things is essen- 
 tial to any clear understanding of the science of color. 
 
 About two hundred and twenty-five years ago Sir Isaac 
 Newton accidentally discovered that a triangular prism would 
 transform a sunbeam into a beautiful band of colors on a 
 white surface. This discovery led him to analyze sunlight 
 which is considered as white ligiit, and in consequence it has 
 long been an accepted truth that a beam of solar light is com- 
 posed of an indeterminate number of variously colored rays, 
 which are distributed into groups termed red rays, orange rays, 
 yellow rays, green rays, blue rays and violet rays. This band 
 of colors, which is obtained by throwing a beam of sunlight 
 on a white surface after it has passed through a triangular 
 glass prism, is called the solar spectrum. Newton himself 
 claimed that the spectrum was made up of seven colors, plac- 
 ing indigo between blue and violet ; modern scientists, how- 
 ever, are content to drop it from the list of standard colors, 
 regarding it merely as an intermediate between blue and violet. 
 
 The word light as a scientific term is applied to three things. 
 First, it is the name given to the yet unknown physical agent 
 or cause of the illumination and visibility of bodies in nature. 
 Secondly, it indicates the condition of bodies while acted on 
 by such a cause as has just been mentioned. Thirdly, it des- 
 ignates the sensation arising from the reception of its influence 
 on the sensitive part of the eye. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 31 
 
 Our knowledge of light is so limited that we can only speak 
 of its phenomena and their laws. All natural objects are 
 obviously divisible into two classes : Those which originally 
 give forth or emit light, and those which do not. The former 
 are self-luminous, being commonly termed sources of light. 
 The latter are commonly termed non-luminous. They may be 
 said to be illuminated, but are, in truth, temporarily luminous. 
 
 The lines of luminous action or effect are what we call rays. 
 The emission of light from a luminous body occurs in all di- 
 rections and always in straight lines. A substance through 
 which light is perfectly transmitted is said to be transparent. 
 Bodies through which objects are indistinctly visible are semi- 
 transparent. Those through which only a glimmer of light is 
 seen, without the form of objects being defined, are translu- 
 cent, while those are opaque through which no perceptible light 
 passes. In considering these terms, however, it should be re- 
 membered that no substance is wholly transparent and no ma- 
 terial absolutely opaque. Thin plates of polished glass are 
 commonly called transparent and ground glass and oiled paper 
 furnish good examples of translucent materials. There are no 
 absolute dividing lines between these classes, the terms which 
 are used as a matter of convenience being somewhat indefinite. 
 
 In analyzing the composition of sunlight we must investi- 
 gate the effects of refraction and reflection. AVhen sunlight, 
 commonly called white light, passes through the prism it is re- 
 fracted, that is, bent from its straight concourse and as each 
 class of rays has a different degree of refraction the several 
 colors are separated and the variegated band of colors results. 
 The rainbow itself is formed by the refraction of light passed 
 through drops of w^ater in the air, instead of through the glass 
 prism. 
 
 White light is also separated by reflection as well as refrac- 
 tion. When rays of light proceeding from any source strike 
 the surface of an opaque or a partially opaque object, which is 
 neither black nor absolutely rough, a part of the light is re- 
 turned from such surface by the process which we call reflec- 
 
32 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 tiou. If the surface of the object is perfectly [)()lishe(l, as a 
 mirror, all of the light is reflecied, unchanged in color, at an 
 angle having a fixed relation to the angle at wiiich it impinged 
 the surface, that is, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle 
 of reflection, and always shows in that single direction the 
 images of the objects from which the rays originally proceeded. 
 If the surface is perfectly white and rough the light is re- 
 turned or reflected in a wholly different way, as every point of 
 the surface becomes a center from which the light radiates un- 
 changed in color, in all directions. In surfaces which are 
 neither polished nor perfectly white and rough the two kinds 
 of reflection are combined, but the different rays are never 
 mixed in their effects. The rays reflected from a perfectly- 
 polished surface have the color of the body from wiiich they 
 originally eminated. Those from a perfectly rough surface 
 have only the color of that surface. Those rays reflected from 
 the polished surface are said to be regularly reflected and those 
 from the rough surface irregulai-ly reflected. When a surface 
 receiving light is rough but not white the adoption of a new 
 term seems necessary, in order to express the result which we 
 call absorption, although it may be doubted if this process has 
 ever been as satisfactorily explained as could be desired. 
 Thus aside from the refraction of the prism absorption seems 
 to be another way of separating the innumerable rays of dif- 
 ferent colors which are contained in white light, i)rovided the 
 white light falls on any other than a white surface. For in- 
 stance, when a beam of white light illuminates the surface of 
 ai? unpolished piece of red cloth or paper only the red rays of 
 light are returned to the eye, all the others being lost. For 
 convenience these last-named rays are said to be absorbed. 
 These rays are only lost as regards vision, because their heat 
 and other effects may be retained and exiiibited. Why the red 
 rays are returned we cannot tell, although the process is in all 
 probability a different one than that of reflection. When a 
 colored surface, for example, a red surface, is partially pol- 
 ished, as a piece of red glazed paper, a certain part of the 
 
COLOR I^ THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 33 
 
 white light impinging the surface is regular^ reflected and is 
 mixed in the eye with the red rays. Consequently the color 
 cannot be a full red, but must be a red with more or less of 
 white light, that is, a tint of red. As no material surface is 
 so absolutely rough as not to reflect any white light it is im- 
 possible to obtain perfectly pure colors from pigments. 
 
 Some writers assert that as we have only to deal with ma- 
 terial colors in painting, we do not care to know what is pro- 
 duced by the combination of colored lights as distinct from the 
 mixture of pigments or, in other words, a teacher need know 
 nothing of the science of color in order to teach the aesthetic 
 use of color. In decorative coloring this may be true in the 
 abstract, as the artist is free to make his own selections, but in 
 landscape painting or the imitation of nature the reverse is 
 nearly always true. Seldom, if ever, does the artist have oc- 
 casion to imitate the local color of any object. All color is 
 modified by high light, shade and shadow and by the innumer- 
 able reflections of surrounding objects. In an interior, all ob- 
 jects are modified by the draperies and other furnishings, and 
 in a landscape it is no less a fact that the color of everything is 
 afifected by the sky, colored buildings and other surroundings. 
 Speaking of certain experiments in the effect of colored light 
 on colored surfaces, Prof. Rood says: "They are certainly 
 useful in teaching us, when studying from nature, fearlessly 
 to follow even the most evanescent indications of the eye, 
 utterly regardless of the fact that they disobey laws which 
 they have learned from the pallette." The knowledge of 
 complementary colors is also necessary, as it perceptibly af- 
 fects all shadows, distances against a sky and kindred mat- 
 ters. Prof. Barnard, in his book on "The Theory and Prac- 
 tice of Landscape Painting in Water Colors," w^rites as follows : 
 "Thus the colors of material objects vary according to the light 
 by which they are view^ed. A sand-bank for instance, ob- 
 served partly in a bright light and partly in shadow, will 
 not appear altogether of its true color, yellow. The part 
 under shadow will not reflect a sutlicient portion of yellow^ 
 
34 
 
 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 rays, and the bright yellow of the other part will have a tend- 
 ency to produce on the eye the effect of the accidental color, 
 purple. Some artists, in depicting such an object would at 
 once introduce the accidental color in a pure state, and repre- 
 sent the shadow by a purple tint, but an accurate study of 
 nature does not seem to warrant the total exclusion of the true 
 color of the object in favor of its complementary tint. 
 
 A little careful observation will convince any one pos- 
 sessed of good color sense that we usually see but a very 
 little of the color that is all around us in nature. A brief re- 
 cital of an actual occurrence will, perliaps, be a more forcil)le 
 illustration than would an imaginary example. Two friends 
 were seated one June afternoon in a room represented in out- 
 line in the accompanying diagram. The principal light in the 
 
 Ov. 
 
 'K<^'- *^>- 
 
 
 
 
 
 room entered through a window. A, opening on to a lawn on 
 which were trees near the house, so that nearly all the light 
 entering the room was reflected from the grass and leaves of 
 the trees. The ceiling, B, of the room was a warm gray. In 
 a corner opposite the front window was a table C, with bric- 
 a-l)rac, among which was placed at the rear a framed engrav- 
 ing with a wide white margin and mat. In front of this was 
 a small mirror and a vase. The vase was tinted a greenish 
 yellow. The friends sat at one side of the room at D, op- 
 posite the table, and in such a position that the mirror reflected 
 a portion of the ceiling illuminated by the light from the 
 window. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 35 
 
 The gentleman asked the lady, who was an amateur artist, 
 what color she saw in the ceiling overhead, and the answer was 
 gray. He then asked what she saw in the mirror on the table 
 and she unhesitatingly said green, and in fact the mirror was 
 much more green than the vase, both of which were seen in 
 contrast to tlie white margin of the engraving at the rear. The 
 young lady knew that the ceiling was gray, but not knowing 
 what bit of surface was reflected in the mirror, the white 
 background and greenish vase in proximity to the mirror told 
 her that it was unmistakably green. Now this color which 
 appeared in the mirror was the combination of two colored 
 lights (not pigments) viz., the green light from the grass and 
 foliage and the gray from the ceiling. 
 
 This illustration shows that the problem constantly presented 
 to the artist is to imitate in pigments an effect presented to his 
 eye by the combination of two or more differently colored 
 lights, as in nature the local colors are constantly modified by 
 reflected light from surrounding objects and by light and shade. 
 First we must learn to see the colors, and then by experiment 
 find out what available pigments will best interpret them, and 
 it is absolutely necessary that we know the difference in effect 
 between the combination of two colored lights and two pig- 
 ments representing the same colors, for in some cases the 
 results are nearly identical and in others very different. For 
 example, in some fine water color work beautiful effects are 
 produced by stippling two or more colors together without 
 overlapping the dots of color to any considerable extent, and 
 with a combination of fine dots of blue and yellow a beautiful 
 gray is produced, the two colors being combined in the eye 
 when seen at a distance, whereas if the pigments were mixed 
 the result would be a green. Again, if we spread over a blue 
 ground a yellow veil and view it from a distance we have a 
 gray, but an artist acquainted with the mixture of colors by 
 pigments only would assume that such a condition of things 
 should be represented by green. 
 
 Having observed the effects of light on the bodies surround- 
 
36 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 ing us, it is natural that theories should be invented to explain 
 those effects and discover their causes. 
 
 The ancients supposed that the action of light was instan- 
 taneous, but a Danish astronomer named Roemer disproved 
 this idea in 1676 by observing the eclipses of Jupiter's moons 
 and calculated the velocity of light at about 192,000 miles per 
 second. 
 
 Of the various theories which have been formulated to ex- 
 plain the method of propogation of light the two known as 
 corpuscular and undulatory have received the most attention. 
 The former, probably originated by Pythagoras and adopted l)y 
 Newton, supposes that particles or tilms eminate from visible 
 objects and enter the eye. The theory now generally adopted, 
 for want of a better and known as the undulatory, was first 
 advanced by Huyghens, a Dutch philosopher, in 161»0. He 
 maintained that light is propogated by waves or undulations, 
 spreading in every direction from a luminous body, in a sub- 
 stance extremely rare termed ether, which is supposed to oc- 
 cupy all space and all transparent bodies. These waves are 
 thought to be similar in form and action to the sound waves 
 in the air, or the ripples produced on the smooth surface of a 
 pond when a pebble is thrown into it. As so many of the 
 phenomena of light can be satisfactorily explained b}' this 
 theory it has been very generally adopted by the best scientists 
 of our day, and is now the only one taught in schools and 
 colleges. 
 
 The refrangibility of the variously" colored rays of light as 
 separated by the prism are in proportion to the number of un- 
 dulations per second, and consequently in inverse proportion 
 to the length of those waves. Young prepared a table giving 
 the wave lengths in fractions of an inch and the undulations 
 per second of the principal colors of the spectrum. It will 
 be seen by this table which follows, that the red rays have the 
 longest waves, and hence the smaller number to the second, 
 while the violet rays at the other end of the spectrum have the 
 smallest waves and the most rapid vibrations or undulations :— 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 37 
 
 roi.DRs 
 
 WAVE LEN(iTlIS 
 
 UNDULATIONS I'EK 
 
 \^ VX^V.'lVO • 
 
 IN INCHES. 
 
 SECOND IN TRILLIONS. 
 
 Extreme Red . . .()()()(>2(;() 
 
 458 
 
 Red 
 
 .oo()02r)() 
 
 477 
 
 Orange . 
 
 
 .0000240 
 
 506 
 
 Yellow . 
 
 
 .0000227 
 
 535 
 
 Green 
 
 
 .0000211 
 
 577 
 
 Blue 
 
 
 .0000190 
 
 622 
 
 Indigo . 
 
 
 .0000185 
 
 658 
 
 Violet . 
 
 
 .0000174 
 
 699 
 
 Extreme Viol 
 
 et . 
 
 
 .0000167 
 
 727 
 
 The spaces in the spectrum occupied by the various colors 
 are very unequal, the colors in the red end being crowded to- 
 gether and very much extended at the violet end. The follow- 
 ing are approximately the spaces occupied by each, the whole 
 spectrum being divided into 1,000 parts : Red 175, orange 50, 
 yellow 15, green IGO, blue 250 violet 350. 
 
 As there is no dividing line between the colors any such di- 
 vision must be but an approximation, as for example, the red 
 passes to an orange red and then through a red orange to 
 orange, and no one can say when the red stops and the orange 
 begins. 
 
 Having formulated a theory of the transmission of light 
 through space and determined that the rays of white light are 
 separable into various colors, each color having its own num- 
 ber of wave undulations in proportion to its refrangibility, 
 and shown how various surfaces absorb certain rays and give 
 off others, thereby determining their color, it is necessaiy for 
 our eyes in some way to become differently impressed with the 
 rays of different colors or wave lengths. 
 
 Referring to the spectrum, we notice that while there are in 
 it an unlimited number of hues, all of which combined form 
 white light, it has been proved that red, green and violet may 
 be called primary rays, because white light can be made from 
 these three. Therefore it is supposed that in the retina of the 
 eye there are three sets of nerves or senses which are so affected 
 as to carry to the brain the sensations of red, green and violet 
 
38 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 or blue. On this theory is based the explanation of the ac- 
 cidental or complementary colors more fully treated in Chap- 
 ter II. 
 
 All students of this subject are aware that there is nuich 
 discussion as to how many simple colors are found in the white 
 light and what combinations can and cannot be made from the 
 smallest number. As suggested above, scientists claim that 
 red, green and blue or violet are the colors from which all 
 the combinations are produced in nature, while it is asserted 
 by certain colorists and artists that from red, yellow and blue 
 pigments all colors can be made, and that consequently these 
 three are primar}'^ colors. But while this question is in dispute 
 between oculists and artists, may we not safely assert that we 
 find in the solar spectrum the necessary natural standards for 
 at least six colors, nearly the same six which are already recog- 
 nized as the basis of pigment combinations, but wliich have 
 been adopted from a different stand-point and mixed up with 
 theories of primaries and secondaries? It is evident that 
 from these six colors we can secure a great variety of other 
 colors b}' combinations and with black and white. 
 
 It may be well at this point to say that we shall in the fol- 
 lowing pages pay but scant attention to the theory of color 
 education which begins with the primary colors and proceeds 
 to the secondaries and then to the tertiaries. The children 
 can just as well be taught the six colors without any such 
 groupings as to be drilled in these divisions which result in 
 mixing pigments rather than from color analysis. The first 
 plan is more desirable from the fact that the orange, green 
 and violet of the spectrum cannot be as correctly imitated by 
 the mixture of the red, yellow and blue pigments, which will 
 match the red, yellow and blue of the spectrum, as by the 
 use of other pigments, either singly or in combination. For 
 example, a red that will make the best orange with yellow 
 will not make the best violet with the blue of the spectrum, 
 while a blue which will best combine with a red to make a violet 
 will not make the green of the spectrum with yellow. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. M) 
 
 CHAPTEK y. 
 
 IS THERE A SCIENTIFIC STANDARD 
 OF COLOR? 
 
 TDOTII the scientists of our day and those of previous 
 ^ generations have devoted much time to the study of the 
 sohir spectrum and in their analysis of it have discovered many 
 wonderful things having a direct relation to the artistic study 
 of color. Many other things have been from time to time 
 brought to light which, while they possess a direct value to the 
 artist, have never been regarded by him as of much importance. 
 Art has always been taught by artists to their special pupils as 
 a sort of hidden avocation to be known only to the favored 
 few. Consequently any attempt to connect the scientific facts 
 relating to color with the artistic use of colors has been met by 
 the artist with the assertion that science has to deal with im- 
 material color in the form of rays of light, while the colorist 
 must deal exclusively with pigments, therefore art cannot be 
 governed by any set of rules or bounds. As a result there is 
 to this day among artists and artisans no recognized standard 
 of colors and each member of the guild is allowed to do what 
 is right in his own eyes. For centuries every prominent artist 
 and instructor in color has taken upon himself the task of de- 
 termining what is the proper and most desirable red, green, 
 etc., setting up arbitrary standards according to fornuilas of 
 his own, in the expectation that all the lesser lights in the pro- 
 fession will bow down and do him reverence, without question. 
 Under such conditions it is about as easy to do creditable work 
 in teaching as it would be to carry on successful Inisiness 
 transactions in a country where the currency has no fixed 
 standard of value. 
 
40 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 As a matter of fact the scientists have agreed ever since 
 the days of Sir Isaac Newton that the only scientific standard 
 on which all color-combinations are based is found in the solar 
 spectrum. 
 
 It is at once apparent to the unprejudiced mind that there 
 must be some generally accepted standard of color if we are 
 to have any science of color, and that a natural standard is 
 much better than one which is merely arbitrary. The general 
 principle can be safely asserted that if any science or art is to 
 be taught systematically it must, to a certain extent, be em- 
 bodied in a sj^stem of rules, otherwise it will never be under- 
 stood by people whose intellectual capacity is not above the 
 average. 
 
 In view of these diverse doctrines the question naturally 
 arises which side is right, that of the colorists or that of the 
 scientists ? Of course it can be urged in behalf of the first 
 class that while most subjects are considered from a poientific 
 stand-point mankind have always been in the habit of regard- 
 ing others purely on their artistic side, and if anything is to 
 be exempt from scientific rules surely the matter of color must 
 be included in the exceptions. But after taking into account 
 all the tendencies of the times, the thoughtful mind is forced 
 to entertain the query whether, after all, every department of 
 our intellectual and aesthetic as well as of our physical and 
 material life is not dominated by science. 
 
 In support of this idea allow us to quote from Hitter in his 
 History of Music: "It is a well-known fact that the aes- 
 thetics of any special art rest on the theoretical and historical 
 developement of that art. Esthetics are so to speak, the sum- 
 ming up, the quintessence of all artistic results gained by philo- 
 sophical researches in the different branches and forms of this 
 or that particular art, or of all the arts taken in a collective 
 form." Now what has been the "theoretical and historic de- 
 velopement" of the art of music? Here is what Sir George 
 Grove has to say on this point : "In instrumental music there 
 has been a steady and perceptible growth of certain fuudamen- 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 41 
 
 tal principles by a process wonderfully like evolution. There 
 can liardly be any doubt that tlio first attempts at form in 
 music Avere essentially unconscious and unpremeditated. There- 
 fore if any conformity be observed in the forms of early music, 
 it would seem to indicate a sort of consensus of instinct on the 
 part of composers which Avill be the true starting point of 
 its posterior developement. In looking backward over the 
 history of music it becomes certain that a scale adapted for 
 any kind of elaboration of harmony could only be arrived at 
 by centuries of thought. In the search after such a scale ex- 
 periment, has succeeded experiment, those which were suc- 
 cessful sei-ving as a basis for further experiments by fresh gen- 
 erations, till the scale we now use was arrived at." 
 
 A comparison of authorities regarding the history of music 
 indicates that for ages rote singing must have been the custom, 
 but that in the early part of the fourth century Pope Sylvester 
 started singing schools, the first of which we have any record 
 in the Christian era. Fillmore says that by this time certain 
 musical formulas had become pretty well established as appro- 
 priate to the different feasts and fasts of the church, and these 
 singing schools had for their object the preservation of the es- 
 tablished chants. They had to be taught by rote and handed 
 down by tradition, for the musical notation of the time was ex- 
 tremely inadequate. 
 
 According to Sir George A. Macfarren : "Pope Gregory in 
 the last half of the sixth century formulated certain modes or 
 keys and he made use of a letter notation, but St. Isadore, the 
 friend and survivor of Gregory, proves that no music of the 
 time of Gregory could be preserved. He says, "unless sounds 
 are retained in the memory they perish for they cannot be writ- 
 ten." Even after the staff" was invented it was two hundred 
 years more, about A. D. 1200, before there was any mode of 
 indicating the length of tones except as instinct and the accent 
 of the words indicated. 
 
 Another author in commenting on this period of musical 
 history remarks : "In the developement of music, art foreran 
 
42 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 science and its votaries continued the employment of harmonies 
 which as yet could alone be justified by their beautiful effects, 
 and even musical theories did not for ages to come, perceive 
 the important, the all wonderful bearing of the principles of 
 harmonics upon the subject they treated." 
 
 Helmholtz in his Science of Acoustics says : "Every tone 
 gives with the principal strong sound an almost immeasur- 
 able number of others which are always heard in a cer- 
 tain order. These are called harmonics. The question is 
 asked why then need there be any particular selection or limi- 
 tation of the sounds used. Why is it necessary to proceed by 
 steps and forbidden to progress by continuous transitions. It 
 appears that all nations in all times, who have made music 
 have adopted such a selection, although they have not always 
 selected the same series of sounds." By reading Helmholtz' 
 chapter upon Scales and Temperaments we can trace the 
 gradual evolution of the scale as adopted by modern musicians 
 and their final agreement upon what is called equal tempera- 
 ment, a slight conventionalizing of the tones of nature. This 
 may be analogous to the conflicting ideas regarding color 
 standards. 
 
 By referring to a treatise on harmony by Alfred Day we find 
 this extract : "The discovery of generated harmonics had been 
 held as belonging to science and not pertaining to art. Com- 
 posers had employed what may be classed as natural in distinc- 
 tion from arbitrary combinations, but each only on the prompt- 
 ing of his genius with the justification of their effect. 
 
 In another place Mr. Day says: "Empirical rules drawn 
 from the tentative practices of great musicians were from time 
 to time enunciated, but no theory, till that of the generation of 
 harmonics proved the natural principles upon which unknow- 
 ingly masters have wrought, nor distinguished between these 
 ingenius artifices whereby in former times musical etymology 
 and syntax were regulated." 
 
 In a similar strain J. Clerk Maxwell remarks in his Harmonic 
 Analysis : "It would not be devoid of interest had we oppor- 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 43 
 
 tiinity, to trace the analogy between these mathematical and 
 mechanical methods of harmonic analysis and the dynamical 
 processes which go on when a ray of light is analyzed into its 
 simple vibrations by a prism, when a particular overtone is 
 separated from a complex tone by a resonator and when the 
 enormously complicated sound wave of an orchestra or even 
 the discordant clamors of a crowd are interpreted into intelli- 
 gible music of language by the attentive listener armed with 
 the harp of three thousand strings, the resonance of which as 
 it hangs in the ear, discriminates the multifold components of 
 the aerial ocean." 
 
 The necessity and paramount advantage of scientific stand- 
 ards as the basis of all musical instruction and musical excel- 
 lence is summed up by Sir George Grove in this way : "It 
 may seem an anomaly that art excellence should be tested by 
 academical regulations since by some they are supposed to soar 
 above rule, but rise as it may, to be art it must be founded on 
 principle and in its working to-day it oversteps its limits of 
 yesterday, it is forever unfolding new exemplifications of those 
 natural laws upon which it is founded and the greatest artist is 
 he who can most deeply prove and is thus best able to apply 
 the phenomena upon these grounds, then it is not beyond the 
 province of the school men to test and declare the qualifica- 
 tions of the artist." 
 
 Passing from the realm of music to that of chemistry it 
 would be possible to trace an advance from chaotic beginnings 
 to an exact science which presents a more emphatic evolution 
 than the one already noted. Chemistry has its origin in the 
 labors of the alchemists who flourished in Europe from A. D, 
 800-1300. The Arabians who were the first people to make 
 advances in the study aimed to change base metals into gold. 
 Basil Valentine held about the fourteenth century that metals 
 were composed of mercury, sulphur and salt, although these 
 substances were not the same as the common bodies which now 
 bear their names. Lemery 1G45-1715 maintained that there 
 were five chemical elements, water and earth being the passive 
 
44 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 elements and mercury or spirit, sulphur or oil and salt the active 
 ones. Beecher, 1635-1681 and Stahl, 1660-1734, undertook to 
 explain the change following from combustion. 
 
 Previous to the time when the celebrated French chemist 
 Lavoisier, began his investigations, confusion and difference 
 of opinion regarding the quantitative relations of chemistry 
 reigned supreme and it was not until he brought his great 
 powers to bear upon the subject that light was evoked from the 
 darkness and the true and simple nature of the phenomena 
 was rendered evident. His experiments overthrew the old 
 phlogiston idea of combustion and led to the complete under- 
 standing of oxydation. In 1<S03 Dalton published the first 
 table of atomic weights and in 1818 Berzelius fully established 
 the fact that the elementary bodies combine in certain given 
 proportions b}^ weight or in multiples of their proportions. 
 
 Of course as long as confusion prevailed concerning the ele- 
 ments of chemistry it could have no nomenclature worthy of 
 the name. Lavoisier and his colleagues pursued a definite and 
 scientific scheme of chemical nomenclature which has since 
 been adopted and used with slight variations throughout the 
 scientific world. 
 
 In this nomenclature the old common names of the elements 
 have in most cases been retained. The names of recently dis- 
 covered metals end in ium as sodium and barium. Those of 
 the nonmetallic elements end in ine as chlorine and bromine. 
 The names of the other elements end in on as carbon. Oxyde 
 is applied to compounds as in oxygen. 
 
 Turning for a moment from chemistry to drawing we notice 
 that this latter pursuit, which is very closely allied to color, 
 was formerly regarded as a mysterious science known only to a 
 limited class called artists who could have from the nature' of 
 the case, but a limited number of pupils. Nothing however 
 would seem to more pointedly mark the advance of modern 
 public school education than the progress which the children of 
 to-day are everywhere making in this popular branch. But 
 while the results secured put to shame the decorative drawing 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 45 
 
 which was so much hiudcd in the schools ten and fifteen years 
 ago, the reason is found in the fact that these results spring 
 from the rudimentary principles of science, whicli nmst be 
 mastered early in the course. The boy who begins form study 
 under competent teachers on entering school and supplements 
 it with a course of paper cutting and folding followed by draw- 
 ing is prepared to give a much better explanation of what he 
 is doing and why he does it than the decorative artist who 
 has had no such training. To a student of such matters the 
 recent evolution in drawing is very evident. 
 
 And what shall we say of literature ? Only a few of us can 
 be born poets and according to the ancient maxim none of us 
 can become poeta by study. But with proper instruction all of 
 us can learn the scientific construction of language, by the use 
 of which the most gifted poets can alone express their ideas. 
 There is, we maintain, a science of literature, which underlies 
 its most brilliant effusions, a science which is most readily per- 
 ceived when we come to compare the crude efforts of a Chaucer 
 with the finished productions of an Emerson or a Howells. 
 
 Modern teachers do not regard that study of language the 
 best, which in the beginning committed to memory all the sci- 
 entific rules of language. They prefer to first give the pupils 
 good samples of language and after they have become familiar 
 with correct results they are taught the rules on which these 
 results rest. 
 
 As in language so in color, there are certain scientific facts 
 which must be learned, just as the rules of language are 
 learned. When we give the pupils good examples in color we 
 must be careful that those examples are based on some science 
 by which they can again be produced at pleasure, and by which 
 standards they can be tested so as to ascertain whether or not 
 they are correct. 
 
 Perhaps we cannot finish this chapter in any better way than 
 to quote from the preface to the Theory of color by Von 
 Bezold, published by L. Prang & Co., Boston, where the author 
 says: ''The opinion is frequently met with, that the most 
 
46 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 glorious creations of the fine arts owe their origin almost exclu- 
 sively to an inborn talent, which has been developed by, long- 
 continued practice ; while on the other hand it is believed that 
 scientific investigations into questions of art are of but small 
 value to true genius, and that, at the very best, they can only 
 help mediocrity to attain to achievements of questioned merit. 
 Curiously enough, history teaches us that the most promi- 
 nent artists did not share this opinion. The great heroes of 
 art, those men whose work betray a master's hand in every line, 
 exerted themselves most zealously to replace purely instinctive 
 effort by conscious activity and to inquire into the causes which 
 underlie all successful creative production. Although nothing 
 was more foreign to them than the idea that technical skill must 
 be looked upon as the ultimate aim of their studies, they nev- 
 ertheless neglected nothing which appeared to be calculated to 
 make them thorough masters of their craft and for the purpose 
 of reaching this aim, they were quite as earnest in devoting 
 themselves to scientific studies, as they were well assured that 
 the perfect control of all outward aids is absolutely neces- 
 sary if the emancipated intellect is to be enabled to soar to 
 the highest realms of art without being hindered by petty 
 limitations." 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 47 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 HOW TO UTILIZE THE SPECTRUM AS A 
 STANDARD OF COLOR. 
 
 TF we admit that the spectrum is the only source from 
 
 ^ which we can derive standards of color and on which to 
 base a scientific nomenclature of colors, it becomes necessary to 
 compare pigments, that is, material colored surfaces, with the 
 spectrum. 
 
 To make any experiments with a solar spectrum we must 
 first secure the spectrum and not only a spectrum but the 
 best that is possible within the reasonable limits of common 
 physical apparatus. The long-established method among sci- 
 entists of getting a spectrum has been by the use of a heli- 
 ostat, that is an instrument having such an arrangement of 
 mirror and clock-work as will throw a beam of light horizon- 
 tally into a darkened room and keep it constantly in the same 
 place for a considerable time. But this instrument is some- 
 what expensive and for ordinary experiments in color a solar 
 lantern or porte lumiere serves a good purpose. Having a 
 solar lantern of the ordinary construction, remove the lenses 
 and take the beam of sunlight from the mirror directly through 
 a slit occupying the place usually devoted to the lantern-slide. 
 
 In front of this vertical slit place a prism of glass, or what 
 is better, a glass bottle made in the shape of a prism con- 
 taining bisulphide of carbon, with its edges vertical. This will 
 project a horizontal spectrum into the room, which for the best 
 results should be made as dark as possible, and by locating the 
 spectrum on a white surface it can be conveniently studied. 
 Having secured the spectrum, the task which we have in hand is 
 the comparison of a line of colored papers to see how they will 
 match the colors of the spectrum. For example, having a 
 
48 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 number of red papers, we must determine which of them is the 
 nearest match to the reddest red in the spectrum but in doing 
 this we must not expect that any papers or other material that 
 can be manufactured will equal the brilliancy of the spectrum. 
 In the case of the red, having first decided by the mutual consent 
 of a large number of competent judges precisely in which part 
 of the spectrum the purest or reddest red is located, we must 
 determine whether any piece of red paper that may enter into 
 the comparison is a more orange red or a more violet red than 
 the spectrum standard, or if it is a lighter red or a darker red. 
 
 We can readily imagine that in making such comparisons 
 there must be a decided lack of agreement at the starting-point 
 among those who are called to sit in judgment on the case. 
 When eyes of various degrees of education, eyes with no 
 education and eyes endowed with natural color-perceptions are 
 together employed in such a matter entire harmony of opinion 
 is hardly to be expected. Nevertheless, the experience of 
 those who have experimented along this line of scientific inves- 
 tigation proves that with a wide range in the occupations of the 
 experimenters, who included both men and women, there has 
 been a wonderful unanimity of agreement regarding the spec- 
 trum standards, that is, the precise location of the most intense 
 reds, greens, etc., in the spectrum, and also regarding the 
 matching of colored papers with those standards. 
 
 Indeed, this alleged difficulty in securing a verdict which shall 
 be practically unanimous regarding standards and comparisons 
 can be set aside as of little importance, because while the first 
 standards which have been selected may possibly, by mutual 
 consent and as the result of greater experience, be modified, no 
 change materially affecting the general principles entering into 
 color combinations is likely to be required, 
 . Knowing that it had long been laid down in the books that 
 the solar spectrum furnishes a perfect standard of the six 
 colors, certain students of this color question on its artistic, 
 scientific and practical sides resolved, some months since, to 
 appeal to old Sol himself for such a standard as their fellow 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 49 
 
 students should be willing to accept and adopt. The results of 
 the experiments which they made as a means of investigating 
 thi& problem have proved, on the whole, very satisfactory to 
 themselves, and for that reason it is proposed to give a brief 
 account of them here. 
 
 It has been generally stated that if a piece of colored paper 
 is held in the spectrum partially covering the width of the band 
 the correspondence or difference in color will at once be de- 
 termined. In other words, that if the paper is a true match 
 the spectrum color will show the same color on the sample as 
 on the white screen, and if it is not a true match a difference 
 will be easily detected. The first part of this statement can 
 not be questioned, but to the ordinary eye the latter part is not 
 true in practice, unless there is a decided difference in the 
 colors. 
 
 The above very simple test failing, we were obliged to adopt 
 some other method of deciding when we had secured a true 
 match to the spectrum. The principle of the spectrum and 
 method of producing it have been explained in Chapter II. In 
 order that the teacher may understand the nature of the experi- 
 ments to be described we will assume that we have the darkened 
 room with a porte lumiere in our window and have our spec- 
 trum thrown on a white screen, at a convenient point in the 
 room. Xow if we could see the color of our paper sample 
 in the dark room the problem of how to make the compari- 
 son would be very simple, but this is, of course, impossi- 
 ble without some special apparatus. To secure this desired re- 
 sult we placed a second porte lumiere in another window and 
 with it projected another beam of light across the room. At a 
 convenient point this beam was intercepted by a hand-mirror 
 and reflected on the screen, just beneath the spectrum. Now 
 holding our sample of paper in the light of this second beam 
 we find that it is illuminated with the same brilliancy as the 
 spectrum, both being reflected sunlight, so that a comparison 
 can be readily made. As a color can be judged more correctly 
 when seen alone, separated from other colors, we made a 
 
50 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 secondary screen of card-board and cut in it a hole or slot as 
 long as the breadth of the spectrum-band and about half an 
 inch wide. With this screen placed in front of the first screen 
 the entire spectrum may be shut off, except any small section 
 which is allowed to pass through the slot on to the rear screen, 
 where it can be examined isolated from the other colors of the 
 spectrum. If we place another screen of card-board having 
 a small hole in it in front of the hand-mirror and throw the 
 beam of lio-ht throusih the hole a much better illumination of 
 the sample will be obtained than is otherwise possible. 
 
 To any one who has seen a perfect spectrum under favorable 
 conditions it is useless to say that the disappointment ex- 
 perienced in the comparison must at first be very decided. But 
 after a little practice one becomes accustomed to the difference 
 in brilliancy and is able to judge which of all the samples tried 
 is the closest imitation of the spectrum, for pigments are at best 
 only imitations of the spectrum colors. We are able to compre- 
 hend this fact while examining the most celebrated paintings 
 where the artist has attempted to represent a winter or spring 
 sunset-sky, in which the green, the orange, the yellow and the 
 blue are blended in such softness and yet such purity and bril- 
 liancy as to always entrance the intelligent lover of color in 
 nature ; but where the efforts of the best artists are exceedingly 
 tame in coloring when they are compared with nature. 
 
 In our first experiments the water and oil colors were carried to 
 a room adjoining the dark room together with a great variety of 
 colored papers and other materials, with the intention of making 
 colors on the spot to match the spectrum. But it was early 
 discovered that in every color closer matches were found in the 
 colored papers than could be made with either the water or oil 
 colors. Although this result was a surprise at the time, it ap- 
 peared to be a natural consequence on further reflection, because 
 water colors are less modified by the medium with which they are 
 mixed than are colors prepared in oil, and the papers are coated 
 with the purest form of water colors, with the least possible 
 mixture of gum necessary to hold them to the surface. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 51 
 
 lu making our experiments to determine the six standard 
 colors of the spectrum we have adopted the method described 
 above because it involves the simplest possible apparatus which 
 is available in any high school, to say the least, and which we 
 hope before long will be found in every grammar school. The 
 use of this apparatus allows a considerable number of people 
 to assist in making the comparisons desired and is especially 
 recommended because the average opinion of several per- 
 sons secured from a variety of tests is of more value than 
 the verdict of a smaller number resulting from investigations 
 made singly and at different times, as is required in the use of 
 the spectroscope. But with all the diversities of eyes and the 
 great difficulties attending the production of desired hues for 
 commercial uses, it is not even suggested that the exact or best 
 possible matches of the six standard colors desired for a start- 
 ing point have been found. All these things must be changed 
 and modified by time, experience and increased interest in the 
 subject. When a set of material standards shall have been 
 definitely established by common consent it will be a very 
 simple matter to locate them in the spectrum by reference to 
 the well-known fixed lines of the solar light and thus establish 
 absolutely for all time these standards for use in work which 
 pertains to color and in whatever shall be written about color. 
 
52 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE USE OF THE ROTATING DISKS. 
 
 T^AVING secured from the spectrum our six standard 
 
 ^l colors by the combination of which the other hues of 
 the spectrum may be closely imitated and from which with 
 black and white a very large number of other colors can be 
 made by combinations, we must look for some comparatively 
 simple method by which we may form those combinations and 
 be able to measure the proportions used of each color, which 
 it is impossible to do with pigments. 
 
 The spectrum colors may be reunited by means of lenses 
 and mirrors and the required combinations accurately secured. 
 These experiments, however, must be performed in a dark 
 room and with considerable care, and, fortunately for primary 
 education, we have in a device generally known as the Max- 
 well rotating disks a much simpler and more practical expe- 
 dient than the use of the lenses. It is based on the persis- 
 tence of vision as familiarly seen in the rapid revolving of 
 the lighted end of a stick forming a complete circle of light, 
 or as differently shown in the well-known toy and philosophi- 
 cal instrument called the Zoetrope. 
 
 If the surface of a circle of white card-board is divided into 
 sections by radial lines and every alternate section so formed 
 is painted black, the surface of this disk when it is rapidly 
 rotated will assume a uniform neutral-gray color, showing that the 
 black and the white sectors are blended in the eye by their rapid 
 successive presentation. If red is substituted for white in the 
 sectors, the combination becomes a dark shade of red or a dark 
 brown, according to the relative proportions of black and red. 
 
 The fact that these results could be secured has long been 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 58 
 
 known and the device of the rotating disks used as a curious 
 experiment, but its practical utility has in recent years been 
 greatly enhanced by a very simple ini[)rovement made by J. 
 Clerk Maxwell. lie merely cut a slit from the circumference 
 to the center of the disk, and thus was able to combine on one 
 spindle of rotation two or more disks of different colors in any 
 desired proportion. As these experiments with the rotating 
 disks are interesting and valuable to children the various com- 
 binations that can ])e made with 
 them are full}' explained in the 
 following paragraphs, so that with 
 the rotating spindle any teacher 
 can readily perform the experi- 
 ments before a class. In Fig;. 1 
 disks so combined are represented 
 attached to a revolving spindle, 
 such as is already in general use 
 in school laboratories and should 
 be included in the outfit of every 
 school-building. 
 
 It has been determined that in 
 order to secure a perfect combi- 
 nation of colors with rotating 
 disks there must be a speed of 
 at least fifty revolutions to the 
 second. With slower speed there will be a dazzling effect, 
 very unpleasant to the eyes, and no well-defined color. A 
 little mathematics will determine the speed possible with any 
 apparatus, and unless at least the above speed is secured no 
 satisfactory results can be obtained in color work. 
 
 Fig. 2 represents in perspective two disks partially put to- 
 gether, showing clearly the method of uniting them. 
 
 Fig. 3 is a face view of the disks, with their centers coin- 
 ciding, ready to be placed on the rotating spindle. Suppose 
 these two disks to be green and yellow respectively, then by 
 rotation the larger surface of yellow is modified by combining 
 
 fe 
 
 -^'"' 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
54 
 
 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 
 
 with it the smaller quantity of green, forming a green-yellow, 
 or a greenish yellow. The standard green and the standard 
 yellow being fixed and accepted, this same combination will 
 always produce the same hue, and if we can record the exact 
 amount of green and yellow it can at any future time be 
 reproduced. 
 
 In Fig. 4 is shown the same disks adjusted in the same pro- 
 portions and with them a third disk not slitted and a tritle 
 larger. The outer edge of this third disk is divided into 
 100 equal parts, so that the exact proportions used for any 
 given color can be determined at a glance, as in this case 22 
 green and 78 yellow. If a tint of any standard color is 
 required a disk of that color is combined with a white disk, or 
 if a shade is wanted a black disk is used with the color, and 
 with these three all shades and tints can be produced. 
 
 By the various combinations of the six disks, red, orange, 
 yellow, green, blue, and violet with each other in twos, all the 
 hues of the spectrum may be closely imitated, and in addition 
 a line of red violets and violet reds between the violet and the 
 red, thus uniting the two ends of the spectrum. 
 
 Thus far we have considered the combination of the disks in 
 pairs merely. But three or more disks may be joined, as 
 shown in perspective in Fig. 5. 
 
 A simple application of the trio of disks is seen in the pro- 
 duction of shades and tints of hues intermediate between the 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 55 
 
 Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 
 
 standards, as for illustration, if we wish to obtain a shade of 
 the green-yellow already mentioned we add a black disk to the 
 green and yellow disks. Fig. 6 shows two colored disks with a 
 small graduated scale, which is sometimes more convenient to 
 use than the large one when absolute accuracy is not required. 
 
 Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 
 
 In forming combinations of two colors it is often desirable 
 to have a constant comparison of the new color w^ith one of 
 the standards, and Fig. 7 shows two color disks, as, for ex- 
 ample, the green and the yellow with the large graduated scale, 
 as in Fig. 4, and in addition a large yellow disk. In rotation 
 the result will be a ring of yellow surrounding a disk of green 
 yellow and separated from it by the graduated scale. 
 
 Fig. 8 shows the same thing, with the addition of a small 
 disk of green at the center, thus placing the new hue between 
 the two colors of which it is composed. 
 
56 
 
 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Fig. 8 Fig. 9. 
 
 Fig. 9 represents the production of a tint of a color with a 
 ring of the color outside and the small graduated disk used as a 
 white disk at the center, thus securing a comparison of the tint 
 with both the colored and the white disk. For example, to get 
 a tint of 3^ellow use yellow and white disks, with the large 
 j^ellow disk at the back and the small graduated white disk at 
 the center, thus giving a tint of yellow between full yellow on 
 the outside and white at the center. 
 
 Fig. 10 is given more as an illus- 
 tration of the curious possibilities 
 of the disks than because it is nec- 
 essary in explanation of any new 
 principle. Beginning at the cen- 
 ter we have the white graduated 
 scale, which gives us a white cen- 
 ter. Next we have a white and a 
 black disk, the proportional com- 
 bination of which is determined 
 by the small scale. Back of these Fig. 10. 
 
 are three disks combined, as, for example, red, yellow and 
 blue, or, of course, any other three colors ; then the large 
 scale and back of all a large white disk. We use this combi- 
 nation to determine the tone of a color as established by the 
 gray made from the black and white. Having set any two or 
 three disks so as to produce a desired hue, with the white and 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 57 
 
 black set at random, tlife whole is rotated, and thus the hue 
 produced is compared with the ^ray made by the black and 
 white. If the hue seems darker than the gray the black and 
 white disks are adjusted till the gray and the hue of the com- 
 bined disks seem to be of the same tone. The tone of that 
 hue is then established and may be recorded mathematically, 
 to be referred to at any time and reproduced at will. 
 
 A careful study of these representative combinations of disks 
 can hardly fail to convey the whole idea of the Maxwell disks 
 and to suggest numerous possibilities respecting combinations. 
 The Maxwell disks and many other simple devices for experi- 
 ments in color are fully explained by Prof. Rood in his book 
 elsewhere noticed. 
 
 In consequence of the old theory of color based on the three 
 primaries and their comlpinations to produce orange, green and 
 purple, the orange, green and violet of the spectrum are con- 
 stantly referred to as secondaries, and hence the combinations 
 of these in pairs are called tertiaries. While it is not well to 
 perpetuate in the minds of the children these names, it may 
 possibl}^ be convenient to use them occasionally to designate 
 the groups of colors which they represent, until a better no- 
 menclature has been adopted and familiarized. The terms 
 olive, citrine and russet, for instance, are exceediugl}^ indefi- 
 nite, as each covers such a wide range of hues, and they are 
 dependant to such a degree on the chemical nature of the pig- 
 ments combined to make them. 
 
 The various combinations of purple and green have been 
 called olives. The term russet indicates the combination of the 
 purple and orange in varied proportions, and citrine is the 
 name applied to the varied hues composed of green and orange 
 when produced by the union of various pigments. With the 
 orange, green and violet disks a beautiful series of hues is pro- 
 duced, which can be definitely named and recorded, although 
 not exactly like all the hues that can be made from the combi- 
 nations of the various pigments classed as orange, green and 
 purple. With the standard blue and red a line of purples can 
 
58 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-HOOM. 
 
 be made and one of them may be used for. a purple disk for 
 forming combinations with the orange and the green, to ap- 
 proximate the olives and russets of the pigment colors. 
 
 In using the disks it will be noted at the outset that the 
 effects of combining colors b}' this means are somewhat dif- 
 ferent from those which are produced by the combination of 
 pigments. The most apparent illustration of this fact is seen 
 in the combination of the blue and yellow, which in pigments 
 gives green, but with the disks or the mixture of light gives 
 gray. It is also seen in the use of the white disk to produce 
 tints. Here the effects appear very much as they would if the 
 disk contained a little red, and the phenomenon has been ex- 
 plained by the supposition that sunlight is slightly reddish. 
 
 Notwithstanding this difference between the mixture of light 
 and pigments the combinations with the disks offer us the 
 great advantage over the other method, inasmuch as by them 
 we may determine the exact proportions of each color entering 
 into any combination, and thus are able to make a record from 
 which we may reproduce those proportions at pleasure. 
 
 If we borrow our standards from the sun and with them 
 make combinations we have results which are the same in 
 Africa as in America, and will be the same a hundred years 
 hence as they are to-day. 
 
 It is on a series of facts like these we base our scheme of 
 primary color education. Having established standards for the 
 six colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, selected 
 from the spectrum, and having made rotating disks corre- 
 sponding to those standards, our next step has been to manu- 
 facture a limited and well-arranged line of colored papers 
 based on these standards, to be used for educational purposes 
 in connection with the rotating disks. We also propose to 
 give to these disks and papers definite names based on the 
 proportion in which the original colors are combined. 
 
 Whenever the disks are in use before a class, no matter how 
 large, there need be no fear of want of attention on the part 
 of any pupil. But it is always necessary to place the rotating 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 59 
 
 machine where the best possible light will fall on the face of 
 the disks and facing the pupils, which in the ordinary school- 
 room will be on the teacher's table. 
 
 It is very desirable tliat the light should be directly from the 
 sky and not reflected from a red brick wall of adjoining build- 
 ings or from green foliage, as all such surroundings always 
 seriously affect any class-study of color far more than is usu- 
 ally realized. 
 
 Doubtless the artist and the colorist will object that the pro- 
 portions shown by the wheel bear no relation to the propor- 
 tions in which pigments must be mixed to produce the same 
 results, and that similar pigments do not give the same colors 
 in whatever proportions they may be mixed. While it is im- 
 possible to deny these statements, we do not admit that the 
 objections raised are pertinent to the argument, but maintain 
 that it is proper to entirely divorce for the time the teaching of 
 color with a definite nomenclature of colors from the making 
 of the colors with pigments or the naming of them from the 
 pigments. 
 
 We anticipate that the artist may not be willing to accept 
 the new departure proposed in these pages, for fear that he will 
 find it impossible to make all the colors in nature or in art 
 from the six spectrum standards by the use of the wheel, but 
 no new system is ever perfect in the beginning, and all that the 
 authors of this scheme ask is a fair trial and honest investiga- 
 tion. Suggestions as to improvements on the system or cor- 
 rections of errors must be welcomed and honestly considered 
 by all who are sincerely studying this color question. We be- 
 lieve that a little practice will demonstrate that for educational 
 purposes the line of papers produced by this scheme is ample 
 for all primary work, and that any one, either an adult or child, 
 having this set of standards and their nomenclature well in the 
 eye and mind, will be better equipped to go further in art 
 education than has been possible by any system of color educa- 
 tion ever before advanced, if forsooth it can be claimed that 
 there has ever been a system worthy of the name. 
 
60 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 CHAPTER YTTI. 
 
 THE DEMAND FOR A DEFINITE COLOR 
 NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 ^ LTHOUGH frequent reference has already been made 
 
 f^ to this matter its importance demands a separate chap- 
 ter. If the desirable and necessary combinations of the wheel 
 become established this whole color scheme must have a no- 
 menclature fitted to it, something that shall come to be as well 
 understood and generally accepted as the equivalents of chem- 
 istry. 
 
 The lack of a fixed and scientific standard of color among 
 artists causes many misstatements by the best writers. A 
 prominent English author says : "Although the science of 
 optics of late years has made great advances, it is not yet pos- 
 sible to deduce from it any certain rules to determine ths 
 relative proportions which colors in juxtaposition must bear to 
 each other, in order to produce perfect harmony. A knowl- 
 edge of the proportions can only be acquired by the cultivation 
 of the artist's taste, and probably varies with the peculiar 
 qualit}^ of the perceptive faculties of each individual." This 
 statement is true only because there have been no standards to 
 which writers and investigators could definitely refer. Rules 
 are deduced by a multiplication and analysis of recorded facts. 
 No facts of color have been capable of record, because there 
 has been no accepted standard colors and no nomenclature 
 based on standards by which it could be stated that such and 
 such colors harmonize with each other. 
 
 The same author subsequently remarks : "vSome difficulty in 
 naming colors may arise, not from any imperfection in the 
 visual organs, but from the want of a clear and distinct nomen- 
 clature ; thus we often allow ourselves to designate as yellow 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 61 
 
 those colors which are mixtures of yellow and red or of yellow 
 and blue in different proportions. With the view, then, of 
 avoiding confusion, as well as unnecessarily taxing the memory 
 of the student, we must be careful to render the names of the 
 colors and their compounds as simple and accurate as possible." 
 . Again this writer adds: "In explaining the terms used by 
 artists great difficulties present themselves, which arise not so 
 much from deliciency of information as from the remarkable 
 irregularity and indefinite character of those various terms as 
 they are employed both by artists and amateurs." 
 
 M. Chevreul, in his very valuable work, "The Laws of the 
 Contrasts of Color," indicates the want he felt for some definite 
 nomenclature of color by an attempt to formulate one by des- 
 ignating six reds by numbers, etc., as follows : — 
 
 a Ked c Orange 
 
 1 Red 1 Orange 
 
 2 Red 2 Orange 
 
 3 Red 3 Orange 
 
 4 Red 4 Orange 
 
 5 Red 5 Orange 
 h Red-orange d Orange-yellow 
 
 1 Red-orange 1 Orauge-^^ellow 
 
 2 Red-orange 2 Orange-yellow 
 
 3 Red-orange 3 Orange-yellow 
 
 4 Red-orange 4 Orange-yellow 
 
 5 Red-orange 5 Orange-yellow 
 But he adds : "I attach no importance to this nomenclature. 
 
 I employ it only as the simplest to distinguish the seventy- two 
 scales just described. The number may be increased indefi- 
 nitely by inserting as many as we choose between the above." 
 The trouble with his scheme was that it lacked any standard 
 or definite measurement by which any one of the hues indicated 
 can be produced to-day. Had this eminent colorist and sci- 
 entist established six definite colors in the spectrum, which 
 we could determine as his six colors, and from them given 
 us seventy-two well-defined hues, how greatly advanced would 
 be the color education of our time compared with its present 
 condition ! 
 
 e 
 
 Yellow 
 
 1 
 
 Yellow 
 
 2 
 
 Yellow 
 
 3 
 
 Yellow 
 
 4 
 
 Yellow 
 
 5 
 
 Yellow 
 
 / 
 
 Yellow- green 
 
 1 
 
 Yellow-green 
 
 2 
 
 Yellow-green 
 
 3 
 
 Yellow-green 
 
 4 
 
 Yellow-green 
 
 5 
 
 Yellow-green 
 
62 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 While treating the same subject Von Bezold says : "Never- 
 theless, the works of prominent colorists show a very consis- 
 tent application of certain expedients, and it does not admit of 
 a doubt that these masters had formulated, at least for their 
 own use, fixed systems for the treatment and application of 
 color, which may perhaps have been handed down as traditions 
 to their personal scholars, but which others can only recon- 
 struct with difficulty from their works. Such systems cannot 
 become common property, unless it should be possible to give 
 them a scientific expression." 
 
 Much might be said in criticism and even ridicule of the 
 grotesque confusion which prevails in regard to naming colors 
 in the commercial world, as well as among authors who call 
 themselves scientists. There* is no limit to the flights under- 
 taken by milliners, dry-goods men and paint manufacturers in 
 their attempts to eclipse each other's nomenclature. To illus- 
 trate their soaring fancies we may be excused from quoting 
 literally from the advertising columns of a current daily 
 newspaper : — 
 
 ''Some of the colors are beauiiful. Words can hardly liint 
 
 bright golden yellow 
 tender spring-like stem greens 
 delicate blue-gray shades 
 rosy lilacs and pale lavenders 
 rich new egg-plant purple 
 
 and all the old favorites, including clear rose pink, true blue, 
 china blue and pale baby blue. 
 
 All sorts of yellow will be good, such as 
 
 Creme, which means ivory white 
 Gluten, deep cream 
 Mais, corn color 
 Ebenier, deeper shade of corn 
 Bled 'or, still deeper 
 Toreador, warm yellow 
 Faille, straw color 
 Bonton d' or, buttercup 
 Vieille paille, old straw 
 
 in fact all yellows going down as deep as the old color called 
 Mandarin and branching into terra cotta, but this latter will be 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 63 
 
 used gingerly ; next to yellow comes sky blue, which is the 
 
 rage just now in Paris but may not last. Then comes the 
 
 Eiffel range of shades, 
 
 Aurore, a pinkish lava 
 Eittel, a reddish brown 
 Marronier, deeper vieux rose. 
 
 The newest color most talked up is Aubergine — what you call 
 egg plant. These are shown in velvet pansies and orchids to 
 be worn both on black and acorn-tinted hats and bonnets. 
 
 Seabiense, a deep shade of heliotrope 
 Prune, still deeper 
 
 are also in this series ; outside these are some reds, pinks and 
 
 beiges. 
 
 Coquelicot, a poppy red 
 
 Cardinal, a deeper red 
 
 Poupre, intense red 
 
 Azalee, deep salmon pink 
 
 Ceres, fawn color 
 
 Colombe, perfect shade of dove 
 
 Beige, a wood shade 
 
 No confidence whatever in grays, greens or browns." 
 
 That the commercial people have some excuse for confusing 
 themselves and the public while indulging in such flights of 
 language may be conceded, because they can only be judged 
 by commercial rules and influenced by commercial consider- 
 ations. But what shall we say of the scientists who are 
 struggling with the attempt to adequately and comprehen- 
 sively name the many colors which they and the rest of man- 
 kind have occasion to use ? According to their own confession 
 they have not fared well in the past, for Von Bezold says in 
 his "Theory of Color" : "The names of colors, as usually em- 
 ployed, have so little to do with the scientific, technical aspects 
 of the subject that we are in reality dealing with the peculiari- 
 ties of language." Recognizing the painful lack of a satisfac- 
 tory color nomenclature and being particularly interested in 
 ornithology, Robert Ridgway curator in the United States 
 national nuiseum, wrote a book a few years ago for the sake of 
 establishing "a nomenclature which shall fix a standard for the 
 numerous hues, tints and shades which are currently adopted, 
 
64 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 and now form a part of the language of descriptive natural 
 history." In the preface he assures us that he has spared no 
 pains to accomplish his object, and admits that certain of the 
 names adopted may not be entirely satisfactory, but puts in 
 the plea that when those which are exclusively pertinent or 
 otherwise satisfactory are not at hand they must be looked up 
 or invented. In his opening article on " The Principles of 
 Color" Mr. Ridgway states the case as follows : " The popu- 
 lar nomenclature of colors has of late years, especially since 
 the introduction of aniline dyes and pigments, become in- 
 volved in almost chaotic confusion through a coinage of a 
 multitude of new names, many of them synonymous, and still 
 more of them vague or variable in their meaning. These new 
 names are far too numerous to be of any practical utility, even 
 were each one identifiable with a particular fixed tint. Many 
 of them are invented at the caprice of the dyer or manufacturer 
 of fabrics, and are as capricious in their meaning as in their 
 origin, among them being such fanciful names as "Zulu," 
 "Crushed Strawberry," "Baby Blue," "Woodbine-berry," 
 "Night Green," etc., besides such nonsensical names as 
 "Ashes of Roses," "Elephants' Breath," " Peacock Blue,'^ 
 "Calves' Liver," and "Iron Rust Red." An inspection of the 
 sample-books of manufacturers of various fancy-goods (such 
 as embroidery silks and crewels) is sufficient to show the abso- 
 lute want of system or classification which prevails, thus ren- 
 dering these names peculiarly unavailing for the purposes of 
 science, where absolute fixity of the nomenclature is even more 
 necessary than its simplification." 
 
 After treating his subject exhaustively this same author pre- 
 sents his readers with ten pages of color plates illustrating the 
 best collection of colors which he has to offer. The list in- 
 cludes about two hundred, and here are some of the names 
 which Mr. Ridgway uses : Mouse Gray ; Slate Black ; Smoke 
 Gray ; Pearl Gray ; Seal Brown ; Clove Brown ; Walnut Brown ; 
 Mummy Brown ; Fawn Color ; Isabella Color ; Hair Brown ; 
 Ecru Drab ; Claret Brown ; Liver Brown ; Dragons' Blood Red ; 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 65 
 
 Ba}' ; Salmon Buff ; Vivaceous Pink ; Gallstone Yellow ; Indian 
 Yellow ; Wax Yellow ; Maize Yellow ; Lake Red ; Poppy Red ; 
 Flame Scarlet; Chinese Oranoe ; Peach Blossoms Pink; Prune 
 Purple ; Indian Purple ; Phlox Purple ; Wine Purple ; Mauve ; 
 Berlin Blue ; Paris Blue ; Flax Flower Blue ; Nile Blue ; Bottle 
 Green ; Apple Green ; Oil Green. 
 
 After reading the list, of which the above is but a small part, 
 one is tempted to inquire of the learned author whether he 
 really believes that ''for the purpose of science absolute 
 fixity of the nomenclature is even more necessary than its 
 simplification" ? 
 
 AVhile treating this matter of nomenclature we wish the 
 reader to understand that we do not assume to formulate any 
 unalterable scheme of nomenclature, but to merely suggest 
 a collection of symbols based on a scientific analysis of light 
 and appl}" them to a line of colored papers for primary educa- 
 tion, thereby putting our ideas to a positive test. By so doing 
 we expect to draw out criticism, which will be gladly received 
 when accompanied by improvement. Criticism, however, with- 
 out suggested improvement is useless, as it does not advance 
 reform. We do aim to establish a nomenclature which shall 
 convey a definite impression regarding the composition of col- 
 ors. For instance, we will use the initials of the colors to 
 represent the six standard spectrum colors : R for red, O for 
 orange, Y^ for yellow, G for green, B for blue, V for violet. 
 For white we use W, but while we should in the ordinary se- 
 quence use B for black that letter has already been employed 
 to designate blue, so we must adopt some other symbol and we 
 choose the Latin word, Niger, for black, already found in 
 chemistry, and use N for black. Thus in a general way a very 
 simple nomenclature at once suggests itself. For all the tints 
 W precedes the letter symbol of the color, as WR for the tints 
 of red, WO for orange tints, and so on. For shades the letters 
 are NR, NO, NY, etc. For intermediate hues the two color 
 symbols are combined, as, for example, the hues between red 
 and orange, R and O, are combined, and so on through the spec- 
 
66 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 trum. The same principle is, of course, followed in the combi- 
 nations of tlie old secondaries, and therefore all the olives as 
 generally accepted are represented by VG, Russets by VO and 
 citrines by GO, or if instead of the violet of the spectrum we 
 use a purple, we have PG, PO and GO. 
 
 Here we also have the advantage of being able to be definite, 
 when we so desire, which is impossible in the old scheme of 
 primaries, secondaries and tertiaries. For example, in a tint 
 of red we may have WR 5743, which indicates that for this tint 
 we take 57 parts of white and 43 parts of the standard red as 
 determined by the Maxwell disks when rotated on the wheel. 
 Or for a deeper tint we have WR 3367, i. e., white 33 parts 
 and red 67 parts. For a shade of red we may have NR 5545, 
 or NR 7525. If it is an intermediate hue we wish to indicate 
 we may have for a greenish-yellow tint WYG 254035, which 
 indicates that we have white 25, yellow 40, green 35 ; or for a 
 shade of same color we can take NYG 383230, i. e., black 38, 
 yellow 32, green 30 parts. If in the disks used we secure 
 the whitest white and the blackest black it is possible to 
 make, and the standards of color have been accepted, although 
 the black and the colored disks reflect a small percentage ot 
 white light and the white disk some gray, yet we have a stand- 
 ard and a nomenclature practically correct. In this connec- 
 tion the reader is referred to our scheme of colored papers 
 described in Chapter X. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM, 67 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE PROPER COMBINATION OP COLORS. 
 
 nr HE impossibility of formulating any very definite rules 
 ^ by which a person unskilled in the combination of colors 
 can properl)' use them to produce artistic effects seems to be 
 generally accepted. This proves, however, that something is 
 wrong, because in all other lines of scientific research a student 
 may avoid absolute mistakes during his progress by obeying 
 definite laws, although he may not achieve the highest de- 
 gree of success. There are certain general principles which the 
 student who is earnestly seeking to make artistic color combi- 
 nations ought to be able to master from printed instructions in 
 this mysterious art. 
 
 The subject of simultaneous contrasts seems to lie at the 
 foundation of the harmonies of color combinations. If a disk 
 of green paper, two inches in diameter, is placed on a white or 
 gray wall and the eye intently fixed on it for a time and then 
 turned a little so as to rest on the plain part of the wall, a 
 disk of red tint will be plainly seen. This red tint is the sim- 
 ultaneous or complementary color to the green, although in this 
 experiment it may be said to be only a ghost of the pure color. 
 The complementary color is the one which must be added to a 
 given color in order to produce white or gray. In general a 
 color approximates a harmonious contrast with its true comple- 
 mentary, but this rule cannot always be followed with the best 
 effect, and rarely with the so-called complementaries as made 
 with the three pigments, red, yellow and blue. For example, 
 in the case of full or saturated red and green, the contrast is 
 so hard as not to be pleasing, red and blue often being better, 
 while some combinations in tints and shades of red and green 
 are pleasing. 
 
68 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Ill coiisideriug this subject it must always be remembered 
 that the exceptions are so frequent as to make it very difficult 
 to utilize these rules. All rules to be of any value must result 
 from the classifying, compilation and assorting of intelligent 
 and carefully recorded experiments. That the experiments 
 which have been made in combining colors are numerous and 
 that they were very carefully conducted by eminent scientists 
 and artists none will deny. It is also evident that through 
 these experiments the few individuals concerned reached a high 
 degree of ability in the art, but alas, they had no means of re- 
 cording their knowledge so as to hand it down to succeeding 
 generations. If we had to-day a record of a hundred or five 
 hundred pairs of colors and triads of colors which were pro- 
 nounced by the universal consent of generations of artists as 
 pleasing or unsatisfactory in combination we could readily 
 formulate certain definite rules. It is needless to add that 
 such a scheme of rules would make an exceedingly valuable 
 foundation for elementary education in color. 
 
 The statement is made that if the spectrum were supple- 
 mented with the violet reds and the red violets at either the 
 violet or red end and then formed into a circle the colors oppo- 
 site each other would approximately be complementary to each 
 other. In other words, if half the length of the spectrum 
 should be taken between the points of a pair of spacing com- 
 passes when one point is at a given color the oth^r point 
 would touch its complementary color. Such statements are in 
 a measure true, and are useful in forming a general key to the 
 complementary colors. Thus the reds are opposite the greens. 
 As the red approaches the violet the green approaches the 
 yellow, and as the red approaches the orange the green comes 
 near the blue. But having determined all the complementary 
 colors and hues we are seemingly only a little nearer a definite 
 knowledge of the best harmonies than we were before, because, 
 with our present knowledge, there appear to be no laws that 
 always hold good. It follows that if such laws cannot at 
 present be found we must rely upon a multiplicity of separate 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 69 
 
 facts from ^vliicli we may hope in time to formulate rules of 
 practical value. 
 
 In general the simple complementaries are stated as red and 
 green, orange-red and blue-green, orange and blue, orange- 
 3^ellow and violet-blue, yellow and violet, greenish yellow and 
 reddish violet. But while in the full colors some of these con- 
 trasts are pleasing the others are too hard and prove tiresome 
 to the eyes. According to some authorities w-e have such com- 
 binations as the following given as complementaries : — 
 
 Vermilion and green blue. Greenish yellow and French blue. 
 Orange and greenish blue. More greenish yellow and violet. 
 Yellow and blue. Green and purple. 
 
 Barnard skives these accidental colors with colored wafers 
 on a white ground : — 
 
 Red and bluish green. Indigo and orange yellow. 
 
 Orange and blue. Violet and yellow green. 
 
 Yellow and indigo. Black and white. 
 
 Green and orange red. White and black. 
 
 Chevreul lays down the following directions concerning 
 Harmonies of Contrast : — 
 
 Red and yellow better than red and orange. 
 Red and blue better than red and violet. 
 Yellow and red better than yellow and orange. 
 Yellow and blue better than yellow and green. 
 Blue and red better than blue and violet. 
 Blue and yellow better than blue and green. 
 Red and violet better than blue and violet. 
 Yellow and orange better than red and orange. 
 Yellow and green better than blue and green. 
 
 The following so-called complementaries are taken from 
 various published authorities : — 
 
 Purple and green. Orange and ultramarine. 
 
 Carmine and bluish green. Yellow and bluish violet. 
 
70 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Vermilion aud turquoise blue. Yellowish green and purplish 
 
 violet. 
 
 Red and green. Red and bluish green. 
 
 Orange and blue. Orange and Cyan-blue (a 
 Greenish yellow and violet. greenish blue.) 
 
 Indigo and orange yellow. Yellow aud ultramarine blue. 
 
 Red and green blue. Green and purple. 
 
 Carmine and blue green. Greenish yellow and French 
 Vermilion and green blue. blue. 
 
 Orange and greenish blue. Yellowish green and violet. 
 Yellow and blue. 
 
 o' 
 
 All the above may be proper complementaries, but as long as 
 no reader knows what colors the authors had in mind and rep- 
 resented by the names given, they are of no value, except in the 
 most general sense. Just how much '^bluish," ''greenish" or 
 "yellowish" means no one can say, neither can any one de- 
 termine with the least scientific or artistic accuracy what is the 
 color of vermilion or carmine or French blue, as they all de- 
 pend on the process of manufacture and the mediums with 
 which they are mixed. 
 
 Also in purple who shall say with any definiteness which of 
 the whole range from red to blue is intended ? And as for the 
 general term "violet," unless the spectrum violet is accepted, 
 the range is almost as great. 
 
 The harmonious effect of old color combinations, and of the 
 combinations made by the natives of semi-civilized countries 
 is not due to their superior tastes and knowledge of colors, 
 but to the fading of the colors and to their inferior color pig- 
 ments. We find that in certain color combinations, as for 
 example red and green, each color is rendered more brilliant by 
 the union, and the chief objection to this brightened brilliancy 
 which to the children is most attractive, is the hardness or 
 harshness caused by the combination. But if both colors are 
 reduced in brilliancy either by the addition of white light or by 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 71 
 
 the want of light i. c, the admixture of gray, as was the case 
 in the ancieut pigments, the contrast is pleasing. This is a 
 result at which the ancient color mixers arrived unconsciously. 
 The principle governing the combinations of hues, based on 
 the phenomena of simultaneous contrasts is illustrated in the 
 accompanying diagram. 
 
 GREEN 
 
 GREEN 
 
 GREEN 
 
 RED 
 
 BLUE 
 GREEN 
 
 ORANGE 
 RED 
 
 BLUE 
 GREEN 
 
 GREEN 
 B L UE 
 
 RED 
 ORANGE 
 
 GREEN 
 
 A M O 
 
 BLUE 
 
 GREEN 
 BLUE 
 
 RED 
 
 ORANGE 
 
 GREEN 
 BLUE 
 
 BLUE 
 
 ORANGE 
 
 BLUE 
 
 BLUE 
 
 By the use of water colors the pupils may be led to see this 
 principle for themselves. The ends of the inside oblong should 
 be painted with any two of the standard colors juxtaposed in 
 the spectrum, as red and orange. These colors, blended in the 
 center, give the hues from green to blue, as indicated, and the 
 blending of red and orange the hues from red to orange, which 
 are approximately in harmonious contrast to their opposite 
 hues, from green to blue. If the blue predominates, making 
 a bluish green, its complementary will be an orange hue of red, 
 and vice versa. 
 
 In summing up the argument on both sides perhaps it is fair 
 to say that no inflexible line can be drawn between good and 
 bad combinations. In the six standard colors the red, j^ellow 
 and blue cannot be combined with pleasure to an educated eye. 
 
 I 
 
72 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Neither can the orange and the red, or the violet and the bhie, 
 or the green and the blue. On the other hand, the combina- 
 tions of red and green, blue and orange, yellow and violet, 
 although strong in the contrasts, are always pleasing to a 
 child, or any one whose tastes have not been specially culti- 
 vated. If we show the child the contrast of red and yellow or 
 red and blue and tell him it is " horrid" and then show him a 
 neutral and a blue and say to him that it is " perfectly lovely," 
 the probability is that he will fail to agree with us, and still 
 prefer the red and yellow. But with a red and violet and a red 
 and green the chances are that he will soon see the difference, 
 and will thus be advanced one step. In view of all these 
 things it becomes an important question with primary teachers 
 how to begin the color instruction of little children. Some of 
 them would at the outset restrict the pupils to the use of such 
 combinations as accord with the best theories of harmonies and 
 contrasts, giving them at first various colors, with tints and 
 shades of the same or with neutrals. Others allow the con- 
 trasts of complementaries, and there are those who even think 
 it better to permit the children for a time to use the standards 
 at random, and only guide them in their selections as their 
 eyes become ti'ained. Many conservative kindergartners and 
 primary-school teachers favor a medium course, between the 
 two extremes. If the children are left to select such colors as 
 they please for any length of time, without any instruction and 
 guidance, they will make but little progress in color education, 
 and may become so accustomed to bad combinations as to dull 
 their natural perceptions. On the other hand, if they are never 
 permitted to make bad combinations, w^hich can be contrasted 
 with those that are pleasing, one of the best possible elements 
 of education is lost, because in all art instruction, where the 
 values of the work depend on form and color, the comparison 
 of the beautiful with the ugly can often be made the best possi- 
 ble means of education. In teaching color it is always safe to 
 deal with the tints and shades of the same color, and they are 
 generally more pleasing to children and others who are not 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-EOOMj 73 
 
 trained in this branch of education than the standards and 
 neutrals. AVhichever plan of instruction is adopted the teacher 
 should follow some definite policy. 
 
 Owen Jones is often referred to as an acknowledged au- 
 thority and his "Grammar of Ornament" as of great recognized 
 value. As this work is somewhat expensive we make copious 
 extracts from it and give complete his Thirty-seven Proposi- 
 tions, M'hich he calls general principles in the arrangement of 
 form and color in architecture and the decorative arts. 
 
 Proposition 1. 
 
 The Decorative Arts arise from, and should properly be at- 
 tendant upon architecture. 
 
 Proposition 2. 
 
 Architecture is the material expression of the wants, the 
 faculties and the sentiments of the age in which it is created. 
 
 Style in Architecture is the peculiar form that expression 
 takes under the influence of climate and materials at command. 
 
 Proposition 3. 
 
 As Architecture, so all works of the Decorative Arts, should 
 possess fitness, proportion, harmony, the result of all which is 
 repose. 
 
 Proposition 4. 
 
 True beauty results from that repose which the mind feels 
 when the eye, the intellect and the affections are satisfied 
 from the absence of any want. 
 
 Proposition 6. 
 
 Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never 
 be purposely constructed. 
 
 That which is beautiful is true ; that which is true must be 
 beautiful. 
 
 Proposition 6. 
 
 Beauty of form is produced by lines growing out one from 
 the other in gradual undulations ; there are no excrescences ; 
 nothing could be removed and leave the design equally good or 
 better. 
 
74 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM, 
 
 Proposition 7. 
 
 The general forms being first cared for, these should be sub- 
 divided and ornamented by general lines ; the interstices maj^ 
 then be filled in with ornament, which may again be subdivided 
 and enriched for closer inspection. 
 
 Proposition 8. 
 
 All ornament should be based upon a geometrical con- 
 struction. 
 
 Proposition 9. 
 
 As in every perfect work of Architecture a "true proportion 
 will be found to reign between all the members which compose 
 it so, throughout the Decorative Arts every assemblage of 
 forms should be arranged on certain definite proportions ; the 
 whole and each particular member should be a multiple of some 
 particular unit. 
 
 Those proportions will be the most beautiful which it will be 
 the most difficult for the eye to detect. Thus the proportion of 
 a double square, or 4 to 8, will be less beautiful than. the more 
 subtle ratio of 5 to 8 ; 3 to 6, than 3 to 7 ; 3 to 9, than 3 to 8 ; 
 3 to 4, than 3 to 5. 
 
 Proposition 10. 
 
 Harmony of form consists in the proper balancing and con- 
 trast of the straight, the inclined and the cui-ved. 
 
 Proposition 11. 
 
 In surface decoration all lines should flow out of a parent 
 stem. Every ornament, however distant, should be traced to 
 its branch and root. Oriental practice. 
 
 Proposition 12. 
 
 All junctions of curved lines with curved or of curved lines 
 with straight should be tangential to each other. Natural 
 LAW. Oriental practice in accordance with it. 
 
 Proposition 13. 
 
 Flowers or other natural objects should not be used as 
 ornaments, but conventional representations founded upon 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. lb 
 
 them sutiieiently suggestive to convey the inteuded image to 
 the mind, without destroying the unity of the object they are 
 employed to decorate. Universally obeyed in the best 
 
 PEKI01>S OF AHT, El,)UALLY VIOLATED AVIIEN AI{T liECLINES. 
 
 Proposition 14. 
 
 Color is used to assist in the development of form, and to 
 distinguish objects or parts of objects one from another. 
 
 Proposition 15. 
 Color is used to assist light and shade, helping the undu- 
 lations of form by the proper distribution of the several 
 colors. 
 
 Proposition 16. 
 These objects are best attained by the use of the primary 
 colors on small surfaces and in small quantities, balanced and 
 supported by the secondary and tertiary colors on the larger 
 masses. ♦ " 
 
 Proposition 17. 
 
 The primary colors should be used on the upper portions of 
 objects, the secondary and tertiary on the lower. 
 
 Proposition 18. 
 
 (FIELD'S CHROMATIC EQUIVALENTS.) 
 
 The primaries of equal intensities will harmonize or neutral- 
 ize each other, in the proportions of 3 yellow, 5 red, and 8 
 blue, integrally as IG. 
 
 The secondaries in the proportions of 8 orange, 13 purple, 
 11 green, integrally as 32. 
 
 The tertiaries, citrine (compound of orange and green) 19 ; 
 russet (orange and purple) 21 ; olive (green and purple) 24 ; 
 integrally as 04. 
 
 It follows that : — 
 
 Each secondary being a compound of two primaries is 
 neutralized by the remaining primary in the same proportions : 
 Thus, 8 of orange by 8 of blue, 11 of green by 5 of red, 13 
 of purple by 3 of yellow. 
 
76 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Each tertiary being a binary compound of two secondaries, 
 is neutralized by the remaining secondary : As 2\ of olive by 
 8 of orange, 21 of russet by 11 of green, 19 of citrine by 13 
 of purple. 
 
 Note. M. Bezold saj-s concerning this : '• It will always remain 
 incomprehensible that "^even ii man like Owen Jones in the text ac- 
 corapauyiug liis beautiful '^Grammar of Ornament" should have 
 adopted this proposition in the form given to it by Field, since among 
 all the ornaments reproduced in tlie ^^'ork just mentioned th(»re are 
 scarcely any which really show the distribution of colors demanded 
 by the i^roposition in question. 
 
 Proposition 19. 
 
 The above supposes the colors to be used in their prismatic 
 intensities, but each color has a variety of tones when mixed 
 with white or of shades when mixed with gray or black. 
 
 When a full color is contrasted with another of a lower tone, 
 the volume of the latter must be proportionately increased. 
 
 Note. Here " tones*' is used in place of " tints, " thus affording a 
 striking example of the looseness with which terms relating to color 
 are used, even by the best authorities. 
 
 Proposition 20. 
 
 Each color has a variety of hues, obtained by admixture 
 with other colors, in addition to white, gray, or black : Thus we 
 have of yellow, orange-yellow on the one side, and lemon- 
 yellow on the other ; so of red, scarlet-red and crimson-red ; 
 and of each, every variety of tone and shade. 
 
 When a primary tinged with another primary is contrasted 
 with a secondary, the secondary must have a hue of the third 
 primary. 
 
 Proposition 21. 
 
 In using the primary colors on molded surfaces, we should 
 place blue, which retires, on the concave surfaces ; yellow, 
 which advances, on the convex ; and red, the intermediate color, 
 on the under sides ; separating the colors by white on the ver- 
 tical planes. 
 
 When the proportions required by Proposition 18 cannot be 
 obtained, we may procure the balance by a change in the 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 11 
 
 colors themselves, thus, if the surfaces to be colored should 
 o'ive too nuR'Ii yellow, we should uitike the red uiore crhusou 
 and the blue more purple, i. e., we should take the yellow out 
 of them ; so if the surfaces should <2;ive too much blue, we 
 should make the yellow more orauge and the red more scarlet. 
 
 Proposition 22. 
 
 The various colors should be so blended that the objects 
 colored, when viewed at a distance, should present a neutral- 
 ized bloom. 
 
 Note. The truth of this proposition is emphatically denied by M. 
 Bezokl in his theory of colok, and in proof he states that the 
 best specimens of tine art as well as decorative colorings do not in the 
 least jjive the impression of a neutral gray when seen at a distance, 
 but show a decided dominating hue. 
 
 Proposition 23. 
 No composition can ever be perfect in which any one of the 
 three primary colors is wanting, either in its natural state or 
 in combination. 
 
 Proposition 24. 
 
 AVhen two tones of the same color are juxtaposed, the light 
 color will appear lighter and the dark color darker. 
 
 Proposition 25. 
 
 When two different colors are juxtaposed, they receive a 
 double modification ; first, as to their tone (the light color ap- 
 pearing lighter and the dark color appearmg darker) ; secondly, 
 as to their hue, each will become tinged with the complemen- 
 tary color of the other. 
 
 Proposition 26. 
 
 Colors on white grounds appear darker ; on black grounds, 
 lighter. 
 
 Proposition 27. 
 Black grounds suffer when opposed to colors which give a 
 luminous complementary. 
 
 Proposition 28. 
 
 Colors should never be allowed to iin])ino:e upon each other. 
 
78 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 Proposition 29. 
 When ornaments in a color are on a ground of a contrasting 
 color, the ornaments should be separated from the ground by 
 an edging of lighter color ; as a red flower on a green ground 
 should have an edging of lighter red. 
 
 Proposition 30, 
 
 When ornaments in a color are on a gold ground, the orna- 
 ments should be separated from the ground by an edging of a 
 darker color. 
 
 Proposition 31. 
 
 Gold ornaments on any colored ground should be outlined 
 with black. 
 
 Proposition 32 
 
 Ornaments of any color may be separated from grounds of 
 any other color by edgings of white, gold or black. 
 
 Proposition 33. 
 
 Ornaments in any color, or in gold, may be used on white or 
 black grounds, without outline or edging. 
 
 Proposition 34. 
 
 In " self -tints, " tones or shades of the same color, a light 
 tint on a dark ground may be used without outline ; but a dark 
 ornament on a light ground requires to be outlined with a still 
 darker tint. 
 
 Proposition 35. 
 
 Imitations, such as the graining of woods, and of the va- 
 rious colored marbles, allowable only when the employment 
 of the thing imitated would not have been consistent. 
 
 Proposition 36. 
 
 The principles discoverable in the works of the past belong 
 to us ; not so the results. It is taking the end for the means. 
 
 Proposition 37. 
 
 No imjjrovement can take place in the Art of the present 
 generation until all classes, Artists, Manufacturers and the 
 Public, are better educated in Art, and the existence of gen- 
 eral principles is more fully recognized. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 79 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BRADLEY SCHEME OF COLORED 
 
 PAPERS. 
 
 T^ AVING set forth in the preceding pages what seem to 
 
 ^l be the essential points in the science of color and the ap- 
 parent needs of an adequate color education, it is now in order 
 to suggest methods of study for the pupil and materials best 
 adapted to such study. 
 
 In all color education the color feeling must be cultivated, 
 and in the primary grades this can be better done with ready- 
 made colors, if correctly adjusted, than by the combination and 
 application of pigments. While the truth of this proposition 
 has been readily accepted in the abstract by many of our best 
 kindergartners and primary-school teachers, the absolute want 
 of any such adequate material has seemed to necessitate the 
 introduction of water colors as the best-known medium. In 
 the use of paints in water or oil the attention of the child must 
 be divided between the study of color and the methods of ma- 
 nipulating the pigments, and in the seeming necessity for 
 selecting water colors in preference to oil, on the grounds of 
 economy and conveience, a material has been adopted with 
 which it is exceedingly difficult to produce a flat surface of a 
 full color, and which, while adapted to most beautiful effects 
 in lighter tints, is entirely unfit for primary instruction in 
 color. 
 
 To meet this demand for prepared material the Milton 
 Bradley Company are manufacturing a line of colored papers 
 which are designated by symbols having a definite meaning, 
 derived from the scientific study of color as briefly explained 
 in the foregoing chapters. It has often been urged against 
 
 fif 
 
80 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 colored papers that because in some of them arsenic is used 
 they must be dangerous for children to handle, and for this 
 reason no arsenic has been allowed to enter into the composi- 
 tion of these papers. The whole collection has been prepared 
 after a long series of careful experiments, and includes all the 
 hues, tints and shades necessary for thorough elementary color 
 teaching. These colors contain and are based on the six spec- 
 trum standards and are believed to fulfill the requisite condi- 
 tions for color teaching in the primary grades and come as 
 near perfection as has thus far been possible in the attempt 
 to match the liquid immaterial colors of the spectrum with ma- 
 terial colors. By combining the use of these colored papers 
 with that of the rotating colored disks the average teacher can 
 lay a broad foundation in contrasts and harmonies of colors. 
 Having secured such a foundation, it will be an easy matter 
 for the teacher to produce a large variety of other colors with 
 pigments in water or oil which will be of great value. 
 
 In using these papers, after the pupils have become familiar 
 with the six principal spectrum colors and black and white, the 
 first combinations to be made are the six colors with their re- 
 spective tints and shades and the grays. 
 
 In o-der to show tints and shades, the assortment contains 
 two tints and two shades of each of the six colors, which pro- 
 vide sufficient variety for educational purposes, although it 
 is evident that there may be an infinite number of shades 
 and tints of each color. Having exhausted the value of this 
 selection of colored papers, the teacher can avail herself of 
 a second collection comprising the spectrum hues between the 
 standards with one tint and one shade of each, which is made 
 up as follows : Orange-red, red-orange, yellow-orange, orange- 
 yellow, green-yellow, yellow-green, blue-green, green-blue, 
 violet-blue, blue- violet, red-violet, violet-red. 
 
 In addition to these colors the assortment contains combina- 
 tions of orange and green, orange and violet, violet and green, 
 blue and red for purples, and also a purple with the orange 
 and with the green. To these will be added any further colors 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 81 
 
 whicli experience shall prove to be necessary, but with the de- 
 sign to keep the line as simple as is sufficient for primary edu- 
 cational wants. AVe do not hesitate to claim that this com])i- 
 nation can be made to do better class-work as far as pure edu- 
 cation of color sense goes than can be possibly secured by the 
 use of anything short of a good pallette of oil colors. In 
 making this statement we have no desire to overlook the value 
 of technical experience in the use of either water or oil colors. 
 The use of these materials will be in order in the school-room 
 as soon as the ability to draw is so far advanced that the 
 children can produce the necessary outlines and designs within 
 which to neatly place the colors. 
 
 Perhaps a word of explanation regarding the way in which 
 the standards have been determined may be helpful here, al- 
 though the matter has been stated more fully in a preceding 
 chapter. In deciding the exact hues to be called standards we 
 have regarded the general opinion or impressions of as many 
 students of color as could be conveniently consulted. As a 
 consequence, in the red w^e have selected the d?epest red, in- 
 stead of an approach to the vermilions or the carmines. The 
 orange is a natural pigment which is a nearer match to the pure 
 orange of the spectrum than can possibly be made from any 
 red and yellow pigments. As there is very little yellow in the 
 spectrum and what we do find is not very intense, the quality 
 of the color impression at the dividing line between the orange 
 and the green is imitated, but possibly with somewhat greater 
 intensity than the actual facts will warrant. 
 
 The blue is the hue commonly known as pure ultramarine, 
 which is recognized as the nearest possible match to the spec- 
 trum blue 'that can be found in pigments, although we have 
 been more accustomed to a blue with a tint of red in it, which is 
 a softer color in many combinations. The violet will probabl}^ 
 be a disappointment to many, because they will regard it as 
 not deep enough, having been used to a deep blue purple 
 for the sixth color, but our violet is the spectrum color and 
 the deeper color must be made by other combinations, as it is 
 
82 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 not found in the spectrum. To sum up the whole matter, the 
 intended use of the spectrum has been to merely get a line 
 of standards from which by combinations to produce a line of 
 educational colors acceptable to the color-educated eye and in 
 accordance with the science of color. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 83 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 COLORED PAPER IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 BY MISS JEAXNIE C. McKECHNIE. 
 
 jn HE teaching of color has until recently been considered 
 ^ as belonging only to the specially gifted ones who hoped 
 to become colorists, either for personal enjoyment or as profes- 
 sional artists. At the present time there is increasing interest 
 in this subject and all leading educators are giving their best 
 thought to it. It would be arrogant indeed to-day to lay down 
 any fixed laws or methods to be followed as the best way of teach- 
 ing color. Of necessity all color work in our schools must 
 be experimental. As an educational problem it is still to be 
 solved. But we can at least make sure that the foundations 
 we lay are safe and true, that those who follow us may not 
 have to undo and build better, but may build upon what has 
 been already laid. 
 
 Let us look for a moment at the reasons for color teaching 
 in our schools. All our progress in educational lines has been 
 the result of the psychological study of the child's mind, the 
 seeing things through his eyes, and judging them from his 
 stand-point. We know that what the child sees in life depends 
 much upon what he is trained to see in school. We are seek- 
 ing to develop the child in all points symmetrically. The ele- 
 ment of color enters as an influence into his life at a very early 
 age. The love of color is as much a part of our nature as the 
 love of music. Color is not as important as form. I question 
 if it assists in developing form. It is an ornament to it, but 
 
 i 
 
84 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 does it not to some extent disguise it ? We want to lead the 
 children to appreciate thought in color and to interpret and 
 express thought through color. AVhen once we see keenly 
 enough, there is no trouble in representing what we see. We 
 wish to develop the aesthetic nature of the pupil and prepare 
 him for the enjoyment of all the beautiful and true in nature 
 and art. "The beautiful is true, the true must be beautiful." 
 
 The principles underlying the science of color must become 
 more than mere theories to him. They must be so applied by 
 him that the interest in application will forever fix them in 
 memory. Any method of work which helps to bring out of a 
 child that which God has put in him, making his work a de- 
 lightful discipline of mind and body, is a right method. A true 
 teacher knows how much value to put on the teaching which 
 brings the sparkle to the e3'e, and arouses all the self-respect 
 and manliness in a boy conscious of having done a piece of 
 work well. In the teaching of color we have a double advan- 
 tage in that it is beautiful in itself. It holds in itself its own 
 attraction for the children. 
 
 True, there is a practical side which must not be ignored, 
 neither should it be overestimated. In the words of Jolni 
 Ruskin : "Try first to manufacture a Raphael ; then let Raphael 
 direct your manufacture. He will design you a plate, or cup, 
 or a house, or a palace, whenever you want it, and design them 
 in the most convenient and rational way; but do not let your 
 anxiety to reach the platter and the cup interfere with your ed- 
 ucation of the Raphael. Obtain first the best work you can, 
 and the ablest hands, irrespective of any consideration of 
 economy or facility of production. Then leave your trained 
 artist to determine how far art can be popularized or manu- 
 facture ennobled." 
 
 Whatever scheme of color teaching is decided upon, two 
 lines of thought must be followed. First, the development of 
 the color sense ; second, the expression by some color material 
 of the color sensations made upon the brain. Here we must 
 decide too, upon one of two distinct lines of work, construe- 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM, 85 
 
 lion and decoration, or trne painting, and in our choice we 
 nuist be guided by careful thought. At many points the two 
 coincide, yet the princi})les of cok^r underlying them are dif- 
 ferent, and it follows of necessity that the uses of color in its 
 application to them must be different. 
 
 As soon as the child makes pleasing arrangements with solids 
 or tablets he has begun his work in construction and decora- 
 tion, and as soon as the element of color enters into these com- 
 binations the teaching of color should begin. 
 
 In the development of the color sense, teach always by com- 
 parison. The reasons for this have already been set forth in 
 the previous chapters. The careful teacher should soon be able 
 to detect any marked degree of color blindness. In this branch, 
 as in all others, some show quick perceptions, while others are 
 dull, yet only a little more time and patience may prove that 
 the perceptive faculties of the dull are really normal. 
 
 At iirst, simple arrangements of tablets may be used. Fol- 
 lowing the teaching of the sphere, pleasing arrangements of 
 colored circles may be taught. Begin with simple repetition, 
 using but one color, and for this first work use one of the 
 standards. Then teach alternation, using a standard and its 
 lint, ^'ery pleasing borders can be arranged in this way. Fol- 
 lowing the study of the cubes, similar arrangement in squares 
 can be given; next introduce the use of the shade. Lead 
 children to see a scale of color ranging from light tint to dark 
 shade. Tell the children little, lead them to see much. 
 
 When the cylinder is studied the oblong is added. After the 
 hemisphere the semi-circle. The quatrefoil can now be intro- 
 duced. Simple rosettes can be made, teaching repetition round 
 a center. In all work in design the center should be one fifth 
 the diameter of the background. Place units so as to cover 
 the background well. 
 
 As many of our primary schools have the kindergarten fold- 
 ing and weaving, the color lessons should apply to these as 
 well. All who have the sewing cards, so useful to fix patterns 
 of solids and pleasing designs, have another opportunity of 
 
86 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-BOOM. 
 
 applying the color teaching, as the thread is manufactured in 
 the standards. In short, do not allow the children to simply 
 construct pretty things. Make all this work an application of 
 the color lessons. In the first year's work confine all combina- 
 tions to standard and tint, or standard and shade. 
 
 The teacher should understand the science of color, but it is 
 not necessary or wise to attempt to teach it in the school-room 
 to young children. The child if left to himself will often 
 choose a combination of bright colors not at all pleasing, per- 
 haps even false to all principles of true harmony. The teacher 
 should so guide her work as to make inharmonious combina- 
 tions impossible. The child will thus receive an unconscious 
 training in the principles of true harmony. There are simple 
 combinations of beauty and strength, and it is wise to adhere 
 to these in our first lessons. 
 
 In the second year the work of the first should be reviewed. 
 Patterns of the solids can be pasted in colored papers and cut 
 out and folded into the hollow form. As the triangular prisms 
 are studied we have opportunity for many new designs with the 
 triangles and in combination with forms previously studied. 
 Now combine two tints or two shades of the same color, in 
 addition to the combinations of the previous year. The four- 
 pointed star, the Maltese, Greek and Latin crosses and other 
 pleasing forms may be folded, and cut from the 4-inch colored 
 squares. As the ellipsoid and ovoid are studied, borders of 
 ellipses and ovals cut in color by aid of tablets, and designs, 
 using these as units on a colored background, may be intro- 
 duced. Be careful to adhere to the same law of desio-n and of 
 color combinations. The background of a standard and the 
 units of a tint, or the background of a shade and the units of 
 a standard or tint of the same color, are safe combinations. 
 
 Fix the scales of color. After the study of the cone and 
 pyramid the new triangle, isosceles, is introduced, from which 
 pleasing borders and stars may be made. The full pattern of 
 the square pyramid makes a very pretty basket which the 
 children delight in when cut in color. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 87 
 
 In the tliird year, after reviewiiiii" tlie color work of the two 
 previous yt'iii's, we can enlarge our work by tlie teaching of 
 hues and contrasts. This brings us to the more scientific 
 study of color, some i)rincii)les of which can merely ])e out- 
 lined in the present chapter. 
 
 In all our previous combinations we have chosen two colors 
 from some part of the scale of one color. AVe have avoided 
 any combinations of two standards. Let us now look at a 
 reason for this. AVe wish to hold the children to the truth 
 in nature and art, as expressed in decoration and painting. 
 A'olumes have been written on this subject, teaching has been 
 carefully and wisely given, and y^i we are constantly having 
 our color nature shocked by bad combinations in design and 
 dress. AVe want to so teach that no woman will enter church 
 with a violet gown and a bonnet trimmed with blue forget-me- 
 nots, a combination which made me shudder as I looked at it 
 and knew that it was worn by an educated woman and a teacher. 
 
 Kuskin tells us: ''As to the choice and harmony of colors 
 in general, if you cannot choose and harmonize them by in- 
 stinct, you will never do it at all." Yet I have seen children, 
 who, when they first entered school, would be delighted at loud 
 and coarse combinations of red and yellow, green and purple, 
 etc., but after three years careful teaching would express their 
 feelings toward such combinations by a shrug of the shoulders 
 and a very wrj^ face. Ruskin was no doubt right in that none 
 can become true artists, without the inborn artistic feeling for 
 color. To such color becomes poetry, and they will instantly 
 perceive the color melodies in nature. But we can do much 
 to teach the prose of color to the masses, making them far 
 better qualified to understand and appreciate and be uplifted 
 b}' the tiue poems from the hand of a more gifted genius. 
 
 The proper combination of colors in a picture or design 
 produces harmony. The following proposition has often been 
 given and is largely accepted : AVhen colors are so combined 
 that the mixture of the whole will produce a neutral gray, 
 then we have true harmony. 
 
88 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 This proportion has been given as 5 parts red, 3 yellow and 
 8 of blue ; also 8 parts orange, 11 green and 13 purple will pro- 
 duce the same result, and 19 parts citrine, 21 parts of russet 
 and 24 parts of a mixture of olive green and purple. But 
 some scientists disclaim this rule entirely, saying it is based on 
 false conclusions and if strictly adhered to will give very un- 
 pleasant results. AVhile we may teach the children to make 
 simple and harmonic combinations, the problem of the exact 
 balancing of colors must be left to the true artist. 
 
 Every color has its complementary. A color placed be- 
 side its complementary increases the luminous power of both. 
 Red is much more brilliant when seen beside green, blue with 
 orange, j^ellow with purple. As has been before stated, if we 
 consider the spectrum as a chromatic circle, the colors coming 
 opposite each other would be complementary, that is, they 
 will be in harmonious contrast. If we put red and purple 
 together we feel at once the discord ; there is no harmony 
 in the contrast, each is harmful to the other. If we place 
 red with green, we at once feel the harmony, yet the contrast 
 is too loud and coarse to give us pleasure. Tlie same is true of 
 blue and orange, 3^ellow and violet in their full strengths. As 
 a result of the contrasts we have force, not necessarily the lack 
 of harmony. Primarily then, never use the complementaries to- 
 gether in their full strength. Many of their delicate tints, deep 
 shades and hues can be employed with beautiful effects. 
 
 The children can easily be taught to perceive the comple- 
 mentaries by experiments similar to those noted in Chapter IX. 
 
 Each color seems to surround itself with its complementary 
 color. As soon as the eye is fatigued with one color it is not 
 able to see it, and its complementary comes in its stead. 
 
 We should not think of contrast and harmony as the reverse 
 of each other. We may have harmony either with or without 
 contrast. Colors are continually affected by their surround- 
 ings. Harmony must guide compositions, but if contrasts are 
 introduced the effect should be rather in the nature of a sur- 
 prise than a shock. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 81) 
 
 Colors are often materially changed by placing: them on differ- 
 ent backgrounds. A large number of experiments can l)e used 
 to illustrate this fact. One set which may be easily ])repared 
 for use in the third year's work is as follows : Take sheets of 
 paper about 10 x 12, varying in color from pure white, through 
 light grny and dark gray to black. Place 4-inch disks of pale 
 blue paper in the center of each. Then lead the children to ob- 
 serve results. On the white the disk appears the true color, on 
 the light gray it becomes somewhat paler, increasing in pale- 
 ness on dark gray, while on the black it appears almost white. 
 Change the color of the disk, using all the colors in turn. 
 
 An anecdote illustrative of this point is told by Chevreul in 
 his o-reat work on the simultaneous contrasts of colors. Certain 
 dealers wished to ornament some blue, violet blue and plain 
 red woven stuffs with black patterns, so the directions were 
 given to the manufacturers. AVhen the goods came back the 
 dealers thought them wrong and declared the patterns were not 
 black. Those traced on the blue w'ere copper colored, those on 
 the violet, dark greenish yellow, and on the red, green. 
 Chevreul covered the goods with white paper, so that only the 
 traced patterns could be seen, when it was found to be a true 
 black, the previous effect being entirely due to contrast. Had 
 the pattern been made by black mixed with a slight tone of the 
 ground, instead of pure black, the effect would have been what 
 the manufacturers wished. 
 
 When contrasting colors differ much in strength, the weaker 
 one will seem still more feeble and the darker one more intense, 
 unless the colors are complementary, when each will be rendered 
 jnirer and more luminous. 
 
 ]Many of our most beautiful effects are made by careful and 
 varied gradations of color, the orderly succession of tints 
 gently blending into each other. Some of our finest artists 
 owe their triumph far more to gradations than contrasts. 
 Ogden Rood draws a parallel between the effect of grada- 
 tion in color and the effect of modulation of tone and thought 
 in oratory. 
 
90 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 The foregoing are but hints of the laws governing contrast 
 and harmon3% but our space does not permit more. Teachers 
 should make themselves well acquainted with this branch of 
 the science, that their application for the children will not 
 deny the truth. 
 
 The teaching of hues of the colors will be a little more diffi- 
 cult, but if the teacher has the rotating disk, the work becomes 
 very simple. 
 
 AVe have studied color in its three degrees : Tint, or color 
 lightened, standard color or its natural appearance and shade, 
 or color darkened. Hues are obtained by combining a small 
 portion of one color with another color. If we combine a 
 small portion of orange with red we have an orange hue of 
 red, etc. 
 
 The application of these in combinations for design give us 
 a very large field to choose from, and truly artistic designs can 
 be made. Avoid all strong contrasts. 
 
 Beside the work in design, ornamental patterns of shields, 
 fans, stars, etc., can be made from the papers. As the scales 
 of color are furnished in the hues as well as the standards, the 
 sam6 rule of composition as before may be effectively used. 
 All colors may be safely employed with neutral grays, although 
 some will be rendered more luminous, others less so. 
 
 If at the end of the primary work, the children have 
 thorough^ mastered the standards of colors, their tints and 
 shades in a full scale of color, the hues and their scales of 
 color, and the complementaries, they will have gained such 
 a knowledge that nature will become to them a new language, 
 because their eyes have been opened to perceive its manifold 
 beauties and endless harmonies. 
 
 The accompanying thirty-six suggestive designs are pre- 
 sented to aid teachers in the use of colored papers or water 
 colors, and illustrate repetition, repetition and alternation, 
 repetition around a center and surface coverings. 
 
 Figures 1, 3, 19, 22, teach simple repetition, using but one 
 color. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 91 
 
 T r 
 
 \ — s 
 
 In 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 ! -| - 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 
 1\A 
 
 Z-v 
 
 V^ 
 
 \/. \ 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 VVvWv 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
92 
 
 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-BOOM. 93 
 
 Fio^iires 2, 4, 5, G, 7, 10, 20, 21, teach repetition and alter- 
 nation, using a standard and tint, or standard and shade, or 
 tint and shade of the same color. 
 
 Figures 8 and 9 teach overlapping, using two tones from the 
 same color scale. [ 
 
 Figures 11, 12, 13, 14, 23 teach repetition about a center. 
 For colors use combinations as in borders described above. 
 
 Figures 15, 16, 17, are arrangements for all-over designs, 
 suitable for tiling. 
 
 Figure 18 is the quarterfoil made by pasting four semi- 
 circles touching the edges of a square. 
 
 Figures 24, 26, 27, are borders made on a colored back- 
 ground. Use two or three tones from the same color scale, or 
 combine tones of the same scale with a neutral gray. 
 
 Figures 25, 28, 30, 34, are repetitions around a center on 
 a colored back-ground. 
 
 Figure 29. Arrange ellipses of one color and triangles of a 
 tint of the same color. 
 
 Figure 31. Use all triangles of one color and semi-circles 
 of a shade or tint of the color or the reverse. 
 
 Figures 35, 36. Add the horizontal colored strip at the 
 edges. It is pleasing when made of neutral gray or the same 
 color as one of the units. 
 
 Figures 32, 33. Use a color with its tint and shade or a 
 neutral gray. 
 
 These designs and many others constructed on the same 
 principles may be made with water colors as well as in the 
 colored papers, but in water colors the designs should be larger 
 to allow free handling of the brush. 
 
ij4 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WATER COLORS IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 BY MISS JEANNIE C. McKECHNIE. 
 
 IX the preceding chapter we have sought to show some of 
 the reasons for teaching color and have given some sug- 
 gestions as an aid to such teaching with the colored papers. 
 There is good reason why the use of paper should precede that 
 of any other color material, for in the papers as now manu- 
 factured we can get truer standards and purer scales of color 
 than by paint or pigment in the hands of the children. But 
 having gained the foundation work with tlie papers, having 
 trained the children to accurate perceptions of color, they are 
 now ready to express by paint these color impressions which 
 they have been receiving. By the cutting and pasting lessons 
 they have been trained to acuteness of thought, carefulness 
 in application, neatness and accuracy, as well as in color 
 sensations. 
 
 In the teaching of color by the use of moist paints the 
 children meet with many difficulties which can be overcome 
 only by the most careful teaching and patient practice. 
 
 The use of paints involves a method in application, and the 
 children should be taught how to paint while learning the prin- 
 ciples of correct coloring. All methods, to insure success, 
 must be systematic. In the teaching of water colors, then, we 
 should begin at the foundation. 
 
 Of necessity, the first thing to be considered is the selection 
 of materials. I do not feel that the cheaper color boxes yet 
 contain all the elements of success in the teaching of color, 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 95 
 
 still some excellent results are being obtained b}' them. The 
 briislies of the small boxes are com|);\ratively of little value, 
 as thev are by far too small to allow any bold, free, wet 
 handliuii". As delicate lines and points can be made with 
 a large as with a snuiU brush. Each child should be pro- 
 vided with paints, brush, color block, blotter or soft cloth, 
 and, if possible, a sponge to absorb superfluous water from 
 the brush. The block should rest on an inclined surface. 
 That of the desk is usually not sufficient, a slant of about 
 5 inches in 12 inches being required. 
 
 The first lesson should consist of instruction in the use of 
 materials, i. e., how to fill the brush with water, turn it to a 
 good point, how to take out color from the pan and mix it 
 in the mixing tin. The next step is the making of a flat wash. 
 It is often wise, especially with young children, to teach the 
 use of water alone at first, until they have learned to follow 
 directions. 
 
 After filling the brush moderately full of water begin at the 
 upper edge of the surface to be colored, working with the side 
 of the brush from left to right and from the top downward, 
 using the point of the brush onl}^ for lines and filling in cor- 
 ners. The brush should be kept full. All superfluous water 
 will flow downward and collect at the bottom, where it can be 
 taken up by blotter or cloth, or the brush itself, partially dried 
 and flattened and then just touched to the paj^er. Care should 
 be taken not to allow the brush to come outside the lines. 
 
 When the children have learned to follow these directions, 
 they are ready for the color wash, Avhich should be applied in 
 the same way. Oblongs 2 inches x 4 inches are none to large 
 for these first lessons, where we wish to gain, as before stated, 
 a bold, free, wet handling. 
 
 The result should be a perfectly even flat wash. If the 
 children work too slowly, some of the color will dry before the 
 next stroke of the brush touches it. If the brush is not re- 
 plenished often, the wash will look uneven, because the color 
 grows lighter as the brush exhausts itself and the next apj)li- 
 
96 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 cation will have more color, thus giving the wash a cloudy 
 appearance. The color should be flowed over the surface with- 
 out rubbing it in and there should always be a puddle of water 
 entirely across the space being closed while the brush is being 
 replenished. 
 
 It will be found that tints will be laid on much more evenly 
 than full colors, and the most artistic coloring is by repeated 
 washes of the tints, but this is too ditticult for the children at 
 first, and it is wiser to let them put on a heavier color in one 
 wash. If three oblongs are drawn on the pads, one may be 
 colored red, a second yellow and the third blue. 
 
 The children should next be taught to make a scale of color. 
 White should never be used in water colors, as the addition of 
 water will produce tints from the deepest to the most delicate. 
 These can be taught either by the mixing of tints of varying 
 tone and applying each separately to a surface, or by a graded 
 wash. This consists in starting with the full oolor and by 
 gradually adding water, ending with the palest tint that can be 
 made. Then start with the full color and gradually add full 
 black or neutral tint to end with the deepest shade. The 
 scale consists of the color from lightest tint to darkest shade, 
 or the reverse. Neutral tint gives much more delicate shades 
 than the black. Full scales of red, blue and yellow should 
 be made. 
 
 Following this comes the teaching of the mixing of colors. 
 The children now learn that yellow and blue will make green, 
 that yellow and red produce orange, and red and blue give 
 purple. We may make a choice of designs to apply these 
 colors. Circles may be drawn. Divide one into halves, leav- 
 ing a small space of white along the diameter. Color one 
 half blue, the other half yellow. Below draw a circle of the 
 same size, filling it with green, the color obtained by mixing the 
 two. In the next circles, use red and yellow in the same way 
 with the full circle of orange and in the third, red and blue 
 and the full circle of purple. A teacher's tact and experience 
 will guide her in her choice of designs. Scales of green. 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 97 
 
 orauge and purple should follow this in the same way as the 
 preceding scales. 
 
 We can now apply these washes to simple designs. As ac- 
 curate drawing is necessary in all designs, the tablets may be 
 used to advantage in preparation for the color lesson. Borders 
 similar to those that have been arranged from the colored papers 
 and afterward drawn, can now be colored. Avoid all coarse 
 and loud combinations or strong contrasts. Much work in 
 the simple coloring should be given before complementary or 
 liarmonic coloring is attempted. In short, the suggestions 
 given in the preceding chapter apply with equal force to the 
 combinations of water colors. 
 
 Dulled scales of color should be taught. These are made 
 by mixing neutral gray with all the tones of the scale. These 
 are often much pleasanter in combinations than the colors in 
 their full strength. Any color may be used with a neutral 
 gray. The same law of harmonies as stated in the preceding 
 chapter holds true and need not be repeated here. 
 
 Many very pleasing designs may now be made by adding a 
 background either from the same scale of color as the units of 
 design or some tone of gray. If any contrasts are used let 
 them be of the most delicate nature. I think it wiser to avoid 
 them altogether in the first lessons. It seems to me a subject 
 the application which can be safely left to higher grade work, 
 as it requires the most careful thought to use them in their 
 proper and pleasing proportions. 
 
 Then tiie mixing of the so-called tertiaries, citrine, olive and 
 russet may be given. Orange and green make citrine, or the 
 yellow tertiary, orange and purple make russet or the red 
 tertiary, purple and green make olive or the blue tertiary. The 
 teaching of each new color should be followed by its scale of 
 color. 
 
 The secondaries and tertiaries harmonize after the same law 
 as the primaries. For instance, if you wish the tertiary which 
 harmonizes with orange, recall the primary which harmonizes 
 with orange, which is blue. Then the blue tertiary or olive 
 
1)8 COLOR IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 will harmonize with orange. The harmony between secondaries 
 and tertiaries is much more subtle and delicate than between 
 primaries and secondaries. 
 
 A large wash of a tertiary with an outline or a touch of a 
 primar}^ gives very pleasing effects. Outlining units in design 
 with tints or shades of their own color also gives pleasing 
 effects through contrast. 
 
 All these may be applied in borders, rossettes, bilateral forms 
 and face designs, though for the first few years I would confine 
 the work to large surfaces, leaving the designs of the small 
 units until the children are perfectl}' familiar with the handling 
 of the brush and application of color in a flat wash. 
 
 In all designs arrange the units to cover the surface well 
 and be careful to have well-balanced margins. 
 
 The eft'ect of different backgrounds on the same color may 
 be taught by painting a central disk of color and surround- 
 ing it by backgrounds of varying tones. 
 
 In connection with the theory of color the children may be 
 taught the representation of form if there is but little round- 
 ness. Leaves from nature, some insects, butterflies, moths 
 etc., so placed as to show little perspective may be easily ac- 
 complished. Color in the round should not be taught until the 
 pupils have a thorough understanding of light and shade. In 
 connection with the study of botanic analysis the coloring of 
 the different elements of motives from plant life may be taught. 
 These can then be used in design. From this we can go on to 
 historic ornament in teaching the different styles. 
 
 These are but suggestions of a most interesting and attrac- 
 tive line of work. Know thoroughly what you ought to do 
 "Make the theory of the subject your servant. Do not be a 
 slave to its laws." 
 
COLOR IN THE SCHOOIl-'RQQMi •/•'•.. ; :• Ji) 
 
 ", . •'•• • • * ' '* ***,*•!!* 
 
 SAMPLES OF COLOKED PAPERS. 
 
 We append a number of samples selected from the educa- 
 tional coloied papers prepared by Milton Bradley Company f(jr 
 piimary instruction. Tliis selection comprises less than one 
 ikiU" the entire line, and contains the six spectrum standards 
 and two intermediate hues between each two standards. Be- 
 yond these tliere is a somewhat miscellaneous selection of the 
 tints and shades of these standards and various combina- 
 tions of the orange, green violet, etc. The samples are desig- 
 nated by symbols, in which R. is red, O. orange, Y. yellow, G. 
 green, B. blue, V. violet, T. tint, S. shade. P. is introduced for 
 convenience, although it should be composed of R. and B. As 
 there are in the full line two tints and two shades of each stand- 
 ard the numbers 1 and 2 ai-e used. Thus "R. T. 1." is red 
 tint No. 1, "R. 8. 2." is red shade No. 2, "Y. G. S." yellow 
 green shade, etc. 
 
 Little practical use can be made of colors bound into a book, 
 because they cannot be re-arranged and contrasted with each 
 other separated from the other colors by which they are in- 
 fluenced, but they are valuable as illustrating something of the 
 systematic methods of teaching which are made possible with 
 selections from the entire list. AVe also hope that the nomen- 
 clature will prove of special interest as designating colors which 
 have louij; been familiar under meaningless names. 
 
 The following list of letters indicates the colored papers in 
 the order which they occur, the collection comprising samples 
 of about one half the colors which we manufacture : — 
 
 O. & V. 
 V. O. 
 V. O. 8. 
 V. & G. 
 G. V. 
 G. \. 8. 
 O. & r. 
 P. O. 
 P. O. 8. 
 P. G. 8. 
 G. & P. 
 G. & P. 8. 
 G. P. 8. 
 Gray 2. 
 
 K. 
 
 T. 
 
 
 R. 
 
 
 
 R. 
 
 8. 
 
 2. 
 
 0. 
 
 R. 
 
 
 R. 
 
 (). 
 
 
 (). 
 
 T. 
 
 
 (). 
 
 
 
 O. 
 
 8. 
 
 1. 
 
 (). 
 
 8. 
 
 2. 
 
 Y. 
 
 0. 
 
 
 (). 
 
 Y. 
 
 
 Y. 
 
 T. 
 
 Y , 
 
 Y. 
 
 
 
 Y. 
 
 S. 
 
 'Ji • 
 
 G. 
 
 Y. 
 
 
 X. G. 
 
 
 Y. G. 
 
 8 
 
 G. T. 
 
 1. 
 
 G. 
 
 
 G. 8. 
 
 2. 
 
 B. G. 
 
 
 G. B. 
 
 
 G. B. 
 
 8. 
 
 B. T. 
 
 1. 
 
 B. 
 
 
 B. 8. 
 
 2. 
 
 V. B. 
 
 
 B. V. 
 
 
 B. V. 
 
 8. 
 
 V. 
 
 T. 
 
 1. 
 
 V. 
 
 
 
 V. 
 
 8. 
 
 1. 
 
 V. 
 
 8. 
 
 2. 
 
 R. 
 
 V. 
 
 
 V. 
 
 R. 
 
 
 R. 
 
 P. 
 
 
 P. 
 
 
 
 B. 
 
 P. 
 
 
 0. 
 
 G. 
 
 
 0. 
 
 &G. 
 
 G. 
 
 0. 
 
 
 G. 
 
 0. 
 
 8. 
 
 0. 
 
 V. 
 
 
•i : .-R. V:A. 
 
' ' '■^''""■"ivmiMMimi 
 
c c ooc 
 
 c '^ c '^ c c >' '■> oc 
 
V 
 
 R.O. 
 
0. T. I 
 
0. 
 
0. S. 1. 
 
Y.O. 
 
< 
 
O.Y. 
 
 i 
 
 . 
 
Y. T. 1. 
 
 
Y. 
 

Y. S. 2. 
 
G.Y. 
 
 t; 
 
Y.G. 
 
G. T. 1. 
 
 
G. 
 
 If 
 
I 
 
G. S. 2. 
 
 ' ' _ 
 
B.G. 
 
G. B. 
 
G. B. S. 
 
B. T. 1. 
 
 ■ 
 
 |! 
 
J 
 
B. 
 
 ■ 
 
 I f 
 
 .M 
 
i 
 
1 
 
V. B. 
 
i^-. 
 
 B.V. 
 
 I 
 
B. V. S, 
 
V. T. I 
 
1 i 
 
V. 
 
V. 8. 1. 
 
 ^ 
 

R.V. 
 
 I I 
 

O.G, 
 
 4 
 
OSG. 
 
 ■♦ 
 
G.O. 
 
G. 0. S. 
 
o.v. 
 
 ^ 
 
osv. 
 
v.o. 
 
V. 0. s. 
 
VSG. 
 
G.V. 
 
 l! 
 
G. V. S. 
 
 ^' 
 
OSP, 
 
P.O. 
 
 I 
 
i 
 
p. 0. 8. 
 
p. G. 8. 
 
■'.^ 
 
as p. 
 
G. S P. 8. 
 
/' '; '' 
 
GRAY 2. 
 
yuuvoKii^iii/jKVMfjiitam 
 
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