Colour.—The term “colour” is inappropriately given by common usage to material substances which convey a sense of colour to the human eye, but is properly restricted to that sense itself. The material colour should be called “pigment” or “dyestuff” in the raw state, and paint when compounded with other substances for application in the form of a coating.

The sense of colour is due to light. In the absence of light there is no colour, only blackness; and black is really no colour, but an absence of colour. Very many conditions combine to cause different colour sensations, some of which are understood, while others we are not able to explain.

For instance, take the action of heat upon a solution of chloride of cobalt. As soon as the liquid becomes warm, the pink colour disappears and gives place to blue; but on pouring water into it, the blue vanishes and the pink reappears. Again, on heating the blue crystals of sulphate of copper they become white, but the blue colour comes back when water is added, and the solution assumes a deeper tint as it dissolves more of the white powder.

If all the rays are cut off from an electric light except those which are in and beyond the violet, and a flask containing a solution of sulphate of quinine is held in that portion of the spectrum, it will become luminous. The same thing will occur even more strikingly on placing a piece of uranium glass in the ultra-violet rays. The explanation of this phenomenon is that beyond those rays which give light there are others which do not give light, i. e. which do not cause us to experience the sensation of light; the reason being that their vibrations are too rapid. But when certain other substances, such as sulphate of quinine, or a thin slip of uranium glass, are placed in the path of the rays, this rapid motion is arrested and modified, and these rays, which in themselves are not luminous, are reflected back to our eyes as luminous rays. The rapidity of the vibrations being moderated, our retinas become sensible to them as rays of blue light.

Colour does not depend only upon chemical composition nor solely upon the aggregation of the particles, but upon these and other things besides not yet explained. All matter is in a state of motion. If you heat a substance you communicate an increased activity of motion to the particles of which it consists. When certain coloured rays of light are falling upon a substance, these coloured rays of light have a motion peculiar to themselves. It may be that the degree of motion in that substance, either existing in it naturally without heating, or communicated to it by artificial heating, is such that these rays of light are precisely those which that substance is not capable of sending back to our eyes. They are then absorbed or destroyed in some way, by the particular state of that substance upon which they fall; and those rays which the substance is capable of reflecting back are mainly sent back to our eyes. Certain colours, such as blue, yellow, and green, absorb certain rays more or less perfectly, and reflect back in the main blue, yellow, and green to our eyes. Hence it is incumbent on those who are studying colour, and who are interested in the purity and permanency of colour, to comprehend at least the principles of that science of light which tells of the action of light upon various bodies that are used as pigments in painting.

If we put together two substances one of which destroys or modifies the chemical condition or state of the other, then certainly one of those substances, and very probably both, will lose the colour which it had before it came into contact with the other. It is therefore most important that all engaged in the preparation and use of colours should make a study of this science of light. Of almost equal value is a study of the science of heat. We have seen what heat can do in changing the conditions of a substance. To give another instance. The black sulphide of mercury, after sublimation by heat, exhibits properties, imparted to it by the heat, which it did not possess before, i. e. it can, by trituration, be brought to display a red colour.

On showing the spectrum on a screen, if some solution of soda or other sodium salt be held in the course of the light, almost all the coloured rays but one will be cut off, and a little band is seen in the yellow part of the spectrum. This is because the sodium flame is almost “monochromatic,” or single-lined: it cuts off all the colours but the yellow. Again, if metallic thallium is held in the flame, the only band remaining in the spectrum will be the green; and if a lithium salt, the only surviving colour will be red.

Pigments.—The term “pigments” is applied to those colouring matters which are mixed in a powdery form with oil or other vehicle for the purpose of painting. They differ in this respect from the dyestuffs, which are always employed in solution. A very large proportion of the pigments in common use are derived from the mineral kingdom, the most notable exceptions being found in the blacks and lakes. All pigments are required to possess “body,” or density and opacity; to be insoluble in water and most other solvents, except the stronger mineral acids; and to be inert, or incapable of exercising chemical or other influence on each other or on the vehicle or drier with which they are mixed prior to use. They may be conveniently classified according to their colours in the first place, reserving the consideration of their preparation for use for a later chapter. The chief classes are Blacks, Blues, Browns, Greens, Reds, Whites, and Yellows.