Page:NBS Circular 553.djvu/23

 Clark, Bakelite Company. The five transparent polystyrene' samples were omitted.

In 1948 Gladys and Gustave Plochere published in Los Angeles, California, a book entitled Plochere Color System, A Guide to Color and Color Har- mony [52]. Associated with the book are 1,248 cards, 3 by 5 inches, each illustrating a different color made by admixing one or more of nine basic pigments with black and white. Each color is as- signed a number, a code designation indicative of the color, the paint formula, and a color name. W. E. Knowles Middleton of the National Research Laboratories of Canada has determined the Munsell notations [34] of these 1,248 colored samples and from these the corresponding ISCC-NBS color desig- nations were obtained. These designations were checked by Mr. Plochere.

Robert Ridgway, an eminent ornithologist, pub- lished in Washington, D. C. in 1912 a book of Color Standards and Color Nomenclature [56], and stated that “the motive of this work is The Standardi- zation of Colors and Color Names.” It con- tains 53 colored plates and 1,115 named colors and was developed after many years study for the use of biologists, botanists, entomologists, geologists, min- eralogists, ornithologists, pathologists, and zoologists for the proper and lasting specification of the colors of natural objects. D. H. Handy, formerly of the Department of Botany of the University of Toronto, Canada, determined the Munsell notations of these colors [14, 15] and from these the corresponding ISCC-NBS color designations were obtained. These designations were checked by Professor Handy.

In 1948 the National Research Council issued a Rock-Color Chart [40] developed by a committee whose chairman was E. N. Goddard, representing the U. S. Geological Survey, the Geological Society of America, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Economic Geologists, and the Association of American State Geologists. The color terms used in the Rock-Color Chart were based on the revised ISCC-NBS color designations in so far as the revision had progressed by 1948 with minor modifications to adapt the names to rock colors. Dr. Goddard supplied the ISCC-NBS designations for each color term used in the Rock- Color Chart for inclusion in the present dictionary. It will be noted that the two sets of color designa- tions are very similar, the chief difference being that the boundaries between moderate and grayish colors have been shifted to somewhat lower Munsell cliromas to accord with the meanings of the color names in geology.

For many years the late Wm. H. Beck of Baltimore had worked for a simplification and standardization of the color names used in the Scott Stamp Catalog to describe the colors of stamps. Toward this end,

he had prepared a number of very extensive exhibits showing the large ranges of color covered by some of these color names. One of these exhibits was a reproduction of the Munsell Book of Color in stamps in which there were mounted about 4,000 stamps selected by him from those in the Scott Stamp Catalog to exemplify the color names which he judged to be of the most importance in the field of philately. Mr. Beck supplied both the Munsell notations of the stamps and their color names read from the Scott Stamp Catalog, and the latter have been checked by O. L. Harvey of Washington, D. C. The ISCC-NBS designations were read and checked by us. Only those color names were included in this dictionary whose meaning was exemplified by at least two of the 4,000-stamp collection. The color names listed are defined by the color of the stamp as a whole, but some of the names are apparently intended to refer to a solid printing of the ink used because the ISCC-NBS names indicate much lighter colors than would ordinarily be meant (for example, the stamp-color name black is applied to light gray stamps).

Ever since the early 1920’s, the problem of color names descriptive of the many soil colors under wet and dry conditions has plagued the soil scientist. Finally the Munsell notations were determined for 250 selected soil samples and ISCC-NBS color designations were applied to them [47], A consider- able study was made of these names resulting in a paper by Rice, Nickerson, O’Neal and Thorp [55] including a set of color charts with 56 named color chips [37]. The color designations used were much the same as the ISCC-NBS except that they were applied to more restricted and somewhat different hue ranges. Red soils, for instance, would be called reddish brown or brown according to the color terminology used in other fields. It was soon learned that the 56 color chips were not enough and that some changes would have to be made in the color names. The next revision contained 202 Munsell samples [38] and the present form has 240 [39, 51], Further changes were made in the original color names to make them accord more closely with usage in the field. The ISCC-NBS designations were taken from a table supplied by Edward H. Templin, chairman of the Soil Color Committee of the U. S. Soil Survey, and are based on Munsell notations. The ISCC- NBS designations were checked by Dorothy Nicker- son, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and Blanche R. Bellamy, Munsell Color Company.

Helen D. Taylor, Lucille Ivnoche, and Walter C. Granville published in 1950 the booklet Descriptive  Color Names Dictionary [59] as a supplement to the third edition of the Color Harmony Manual [23], 1948. The booklet is intended to fill the “need for a systematized listing and color specification of the  words commonly used to describe the color of general  merchandise for the mass market”. The colorimetric coordinates of the samples of the Color Harmony Manual, both matte and glossy sides, were deter- 12