Abstract

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines “essay” first as “an effort to do something; attempt; trial.” Only second is it defined as “a literary composition, analytical or interpretative, dealing with its subject from a more or less limited or personal standpoint.” This article is an essay (second meaning) about a few essays (first meaning) that have been made to understand color. Genesis, Aristotle, Plato, Newton, Palmer, Young, Helmholtz, Maxwell, and Frederic Ives are represented.

© 1975 Optical Society of America

Recognition of traffic signals viewed through colored filters

Richard A. Phillips and Walter Kondig
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(10) 1106-1113 (1975)

Evolution of Color Vision Tests1

Elsie Murray
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 33(6) 316-334 (1943)

Step size in the Munsell color-order system by pair comparisons near 5Y 7.5/1 and bisections near 10R 7/8

Robert T. Marcus and Fred W. Billmeyer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(2) 208-212 (1975)

Relation between Munsell and Swedish Natural Color System scales

Deane B. Judd and Dorothy Nickerson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(1) 85-90 (1975)

Optimal colors and luminous fluorescence of bluish whites

Å ke S:son Stenius
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(2) 213-216 (1975)