Reception and Reconfigurations

Compare these different ideas about the creation of color to John Wilson'sdescription of coloration and practical color phenomena.29 reference In AnEssay on Light and Colours, Wilson, a Manchester dyer, described his continuing research, first presented some years earlier to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Except for a summary portion at the end of this pamphlet, details of that earlier presentation (of 20 March 1782) are lost.

Wilson stated that his goal in writing theEssaywas to reconcile the chemical ideas of color with practice, based on his experiences. He outlined a theory of coloration without resorting to phlogiston at all, depending instead on the dyer's tradition that explained mordant action as the basis for the chemistry of coloration. In the first part of the pamphlet, Wilson argued against Edward Hussey Delaval'ssecond treatise on opaque colors.30 In the second half, he described color production, using his own factory practices as his basis.

Wilson explained that colors are inherent in rays of light only and that color is a question of reflection and refraction. Rather than remaining on the outer surface, as Newton believed, Wilson claimed that the rays enter the colored object. A mutual attraction exists between the rays themselves and particles disposed to receive them. Colors arise—they become visible—when there is an abundant quantity of rays of a single color, even more than the particles can hold. This is demonstrated through the practices of dyeing cotton. Coloring particles, the bodies that form color from the attraction or reflection of rays of light, adhere to this fiber only after the intervention of a salt that has an affinity for both the cotton or linen and the coloring matter. The composition of the salt will also affect the color of the particles.

According to Wilson's explanation, rays of color are reflected from the object; their color, while unique, still may be altered to reflect other colors. His example of this is a familiar series of experiments with a solution of gold in tin chloride. referenceWilson returned to Newton to bolster this assertion and used prismatic effects as an analogy: Clear faceted glass, or diamonds, divide the rays of light and show all the different colors. Wilson concluded that coloring particles, the bodies that form colors by attraction and reflection from rays of light, are "probably pellucid" and so appear opaque as they collect, an assertion he proved through his experience. Successive dippings of a cloth in one color may give it a darker shade, but no number of repeated dippings or dyeings will ever create black.31 Because this experience did not agree with the philosophical statements, he knew that the latter, especially Delaval's claims that colors are inherent properties of objects, must not be true.32

Unfortunately, although not atypically, Wilson could not deduce known practical results from his conjectures. In a brief section, "Colours in Dyeing Matters," he offered elements of a theory of coloration, returning to the use of salts and the need for an affinity between fiber and coloring materials. In that context, he described the need for proper grounding and preparation of the fabric. Colors are formed on objects by the variations created by the presence of different salts, held in place on the fiber by mordants, assistants, and grounds. Although he promised explanation of other colormaking procedures for cotton, as practiced in Manchester, not much actually followed: Wilson returned to an anecdotal outline of the processes used in his manufacture, and acknowledged excluding the information that would serve his competition.