SHADOWS (COLOURED), a curious optical phenomenon, which was observed, a considerable number of years ago, by Professor Scheffer of Vienna, and more lately by Count Rumford. The Count made the discovery when prosecuting his experiments upon light; of which the reader will find some account under the titles LAMP and PHOTOMETER in this Suppl. "Desirous (says he) of comparing the intensity of the light of a clear blue sky by day with that of a common wax-candle, I darkened my room, and letting the day-light from the north, coming thro' a hole near the top of the window-shutter, fall at an angle of about 70° upon a sheet of very fine white paper, I placed a burning wax-candle in such a position that its rays fell upon the same paper, and, as near as I could guess, in the line of reflection of the rays of day-light from without; when, interposing a cylinder of wood, about half an inch in diameter, before the centre of the paper, and at the distance of about two inches from its surface, I was much surprised to find that the two shadows projected by the cylinder upon the paper, instead of being merely shades without colour, as I expected; the one of them, that which, corresponding with the beam of day-light, was illuminated by the candle, was yellow; while the other, corresponding to the light of the candle, and consequently illuminated by the light of the heavens, was of the most beautiful blue that it is possible to imagine. This appearance, which was not only unexpected, but was really in itself in the highest degree striking and beautiful,
(A) This famous pastoral song is never sung by the cowherds with words to it: all the tones of it are simple, and mostly formed within the throat. Hence the tune produces very little or no motion of the jawbones, and its sounds do not resemble those which commonly issue from the human throat, but rather seem to be the tones of some wind instrument; particularly as scarcely any breathing is perceived, and as the cowherds sometimes sing for minutes together without fetching breath.
low, beautiful, I found upon repeated trials, and after vary-
ing the experiment in every way I could think of, to
be so perfectly permanent, that it is absolutely impos-
sible to produce two shadows at the same time, from the
same body, the one answering to a beam of day-light,
and the other to the light of a candle or lamp, without
these shadows being coloured, the one yellow, and the
other blue.
"If the candle be brought nearer to the paper, the
blue shadow will become of a deeper hue, and the yel-
low shadow will gradually grow fainter; but if it be
removed farther off, the yellow shadow will become of
a deeper colour, and the blue shadow will become
fainter; and the candle remaining stationary in the same
place, the same varieties in the strength of the tints of
the coloured shadows may be produced merely by open-
ing the window-flutter a little more or less, and ren-
dering the illumination of the paper, by the light from
without, stronger or weaker. By either of these means,
the coloured shadows may be made to pass through all
the gradations of shade, from the deepest to the light-
est, and vice versa; and it is not a little amusing to see
shadows thus glowing with all the brilliancy of the
purest and most intense prismatic colours, then passing
suddenly through all the varieties of shade, preserving
in all the most perfect purity of tint, growing stronger
and fainter, and vanishing and returning, at command."
With respect to the causes of the colours of these
shadows, there is no doubt (says the Count) but they
arise from the different qualities of the light by which
they are illuminated; but how they are produced, does
not appear to him so evident. With the utmost de-
ference to this amiable and very ingenious philosopher,
we think all the phenomena of coloured shadows which
he enumerates *, have been, or may be accounted for
by Professor Scherer's theory, of which the reader will
find, we hope, a perspicuous view under Accidental Co-
lours, in this Supplement.