Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/378

362 displayed in a well-lighted corner of the laboratory, bearing the inscription shown on page 363.

This method of voting was made possible by having on hand a constant supply of small cards, each bearing a number from 1 to 25, and arranged in numerical order in small boxes or trays. Of such boxes there were two sets, one containing square and the other oblong cards. By means of these devices the shape of each card dropped into the ballot box indicated the sex of the voter; the printed number on its face indicated the voter's favorite color; the letter written on its back, his preferred combination of colors; the number written on its back, his age; and the fact that all this information was recorded on one card established the relation between the preferred single color and the preferred combination of colors.

The colors thus displayed were those bearing these names in the series of colored papers prepared by the Prang Educational Company, and to Mr. Prang my obligations are due for very material assistance in this investigation. I am also indebted to Dr. Herbert Nichols and Mrs. M. D. Hicks for the selection and arrangement of the colors and the permission to use the color scheme prepared by them for the study of color preferences. In such a study only a small and somewhat arbitrarily selected range of colors can be conveniently presented, and it is likely that the results may be to some extent influenced by the particular colors among which a choice was requested. Regarding the nature of the colors here presented, it may be noted that the twenty-four single colors fall into two groups of twelve each, the second group forming respectively the lighter shades (in the same order) of the colors in the first group. Each group of twelve colors is composed of the six "primary" or "normal" shades of the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and of six intermediate or transitional colors—red orange, orange yellow, etc. In the color combinations no transitional colors are used, and, so far as is possible in twenty-four combinations, a wide range of grouping and combination is presented.

The material thus gathered, about four thousand five hundred records in all, may be considered from a variety of points of view, and may be made to furnish interesting information regarding the range and distribution of average color preferences. We shall consider first the preferences for the single colors and for color combinations as they occur in the general average, and then ascertain how far these preferences are modified by differences in sex and in age.