Details
HELMHOLTZ, Hermann von (1821-1894). Autograph draft manuscript signed ("H. Helmholtz"), pages 461-464 of his paper "ber die Theorie der zusammengesetzten Farben." [Knigsberg, 1852]. With revisions and emendations in his hand. 8 pages, 4o, on 2 folio sheets laid one inside the other, text in left column, revisions on right side (one page neatly repaired at center fold).
A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY OF COLOR
HELMHOLTZ'S SIGNED AUTOGRAPH DRAFT WITH REVISIONS OF THE FIRST FOUR PAGES OF HIS EPOCHAL PAPER ON THE COMPOSITION OF MIXED COLORS. This was the paper that provided the first experimental evidence that three primary colors of light make white light, and gave impetus to the development of a correct theory of color vision (the so-called Young-Helmholz-Maxwell theory of color vision). From the earliest times, it had been assumed that mixed colors of light behaved in the same manner as mixed pigments. Here Helmholtz showed that they operate on different principles (subtractive versus additive) and therefore that assumptions based on one could not be applied to the other. Helmholtz instead supported the alternative theory of color vision, based on primary colors as defined by the eye, suggested by Thomas Young at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In this paper, Helmholtz argued that it would require a basis in five rather than three primary colors. Shortly after, James Clerk Maxwell gave the first experimental proof of this theory.
This article was published in 1852 on pp. 461-82 of Archiv fr Anatomie, Physiologie, und wissenschatliche Medicin (see lot 52), and on pp. 45-66 of Annalen der Physik u. der physikalisch Chemie. This manuscript is identical to the version published in the Annalen, and includes approximately thirty differences from the Archiv version, pp. 461-64. These changes range from a word or two to substitutions and insertions of ten or so lines. Although the manuscript does not include the entire text of the finished article, it is still an exceptional example of the thought process of one of the greatest scientific minds. RARE.
A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY OF COLOR
HELMHOLTZ'S SIGNED AUTOGRAPH DRAFT WITH REVISIONS OF THE FIRST FOUR PAGES OF HIS EPOCHAL PAPER ON THE COMPOSITION OF MIXED COLORS. This was the paper that provided the first experimental evidence that three primary colors of light make white light, and gave impetus to the development of a correct theory of color vision (the so-called Young-Helmholz-Maxwell theory of color vision). From the earliest times, it had been assumed that mixed colors of light behaved in the same manner as mixed pigments. Here Helmholtz showed that they operate on different principles (subtractive versus additive) and therefore that assumptions based on one could not be applied to the other. Helmholtz instead supported the alternative theory of color vision, based on primary colors as defined by the eye, suggested by Thomas Young at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In this paper, Helmholtz argued that it would require a basis in five rather than three primary colors. Shortly after, James Clerk Maxwell gave the first experimental proof of this theory.
This article was published in 1852 on pp. 461-82 of Archiv fr Anatomie, Physiologie, und wissenschatliche Medicin (see lot 52), and on pp. 45-66 of Annalen der Physik u. der physikalisch Chemie. This manuscript is identical to the version published in the Annalen, and includes approximately thirty differences from the Archiv version, pp. 461-64. These changes range from a word or two to substitutions and insertions of ten or so lines. Although the manuscript does not include the entire text of the finished article, it is still an exceptional example of the thought process of one of the greatest scientific minds. RARE.