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More than a bit off-topic but irresistible, bearing in mind the punditry in full-flow on a certain forum. The colour of Night? Yes, we have been here before. The clue is in the name. Matt black might be expected to be called - er - matt black. MAP and the RAF seemed to have no problem calling their paint standards by names like Red, Blue and Yellow so why on earth should they call matt black 'Night'? It is fairly well established by now that RAF Night was actually composed of carbon black and ultramarine pigments - exactly the same as the "black" applied to Japanese Navy Zero cowlings - which was also a blue-black made from a combination of carbon black and ultramarine. But courtesy of the research perseverance and generosity of Edgar Brooks it is useful to have some near contemporaneous evidence for it; this from a fascinating 60-page RAE Farnborough report entitled 'Camouflage and Surface Finish of Aircraft' by G Palmer, B.Sc. prepared in 1947 and which traces the development of RAF camouflage and paint finishes:-
Note the key descriptions - "serviceable matt blue-black", "dark matt blue-black finish" - an impression confirmed by quite a few wartime colour photographs - and "standardised as Night".
But wait, there is more. Night still lurks in the modern BS 381C as 642 Night and although included in the "greys" section, has a cited Munsell value of 8.9 B (Blue) 2.1/0.2 which is indeed an extremely dark blue - or blue-black. Measuring a wartime MAP swatch for Night confirms a similar very deep blue-black hue of 0.3 B 1.3/0.9 which typically oxidised with exposure towards 7.5 B 2/1. The former value is darker than FS 15042 @ 2.46 whilst the latter is close to FS 26044 @ 1.87. Does it look blue-ish? Yes, it does.
A pure black, without colour tone, would be Munsell N 1.0/0.0 and Night is not that - ever. But on its own, or in juxtaposition to other colours Night might look like black to many observers. To be pedantic in colour terms it is not "gunmetal" or "dark grey" either. It is blue. But be careful - the chip published in 'British Aviation Colours of World War Two' is a Munsell YR - yellow red - and effectively a very dark black brown. How come? Well, apart from a possible aberration it might have a lot to do with the variance in the carbon black pigment used - available from blue shade to red shade. Applied Night could look slightly blueish - or maybe slightly purple-brown, dependent upon actual pigment composition and illumination. However in colour science terms the standard was not pure black but BLUE. (There, I'm shouting it, but not from the rooftops).
Paul Lucas suggests that "Night was still being listed in the Vocab of Stores as a separate colour from Black in the mid-1960s"*. Perhaps another clue for any entrenched sceptics that Night was not simply "matt black".
The closest FS 595b colour to the current 642 Night, using the cited BSI L*a*b* values rather than the Munsell is 37030 @ 3.00 - it is actually a little darker - ('7' puts it in the "Miscellaneous" category). The FS 595b pigments used in 37030 are Rutile Titanium Dioxide (white), Quinacridone Magenta Y, Chrome Yellow Med. (Red Shade) and Carbon Black (Blue Shade). Quite a journey from simple carbon black and ultramarine.
Another contemporaneous report from the Ministry of Supply on the subject of 'Paint Materials - Substitution' provides some insight to the wartime availability of black pigments:-
The same report makes clear that there was no issue with the supply of ultramarine. Ultramarine is actually a generic name for a strong blue pigment that exists in several forms. Originally it referred to a pigment derived from lapus lazuli but has come to be used for synthetic pigments derived from a similar composition to lazurite, the blue mineral found in lapus lazuli. The best grades are a very strongly tinting and powerful blue but there are poorer grades, generally known as ultramarine ashes.
For this poor pilgrim of colour the opposite of Night is Day and the opposite of Sky is Earth or Sea .
origine ???
Paco
More than a bit off-topic but irresistible, bearing in mind the punditry in full-flow on a certain forum. The colour of Night? Yes, we have been here before. The clue is in the name. Matt black might be expected to be called - er - matt black. MAP and the RAF seemed to have no problem calling their paint standards by names like Red, Blue and Yellow so why on earth should they call matt black 'Night'? It is fairly well established by now that RAF Night was actually composed of carbon black and ultramarine pigments - exactly the same as the "black" applied to Japanese Navy Zero cowlings - which was also a blue-black made from a combination of carbon black and ultramarine. But courtesy of the research perseverance and generosity of Edgar Brooks it is useful to have some near contemporaneous evidence for it; this from a fascinating 60-page RAE Farnborough report entitled 'Camouflage and Surface Finish of Aircraft' by G Palmer, B.Sc. prepared in 1947 and which traces the development of RAF camouflage and paint finishes:-
Note the key descriptions - "serviceable matt blue-black", "dark matt blue-black finish" - an impression confirmed by quite a few wartime colour photographs - and "standardised as Night".
But wait, there is more. Night still lurks in the modern BS 381C as 642 Night and although included in the "greys" section, has a cited Munsell value of 8.9 B (Blue) 2.1/0.2 which is indeed an extremely dark blue - or blue-black. Measuring a wartime MAP swatch for Night confirms a similar very deep blue-black hue of 0.3 B 1.3/0.9 which typically oxidised with exposure towards 7.5 B 2/1. The former value is darker than FS 15042 @ 2.46 whilst the latter is close to FS 26044 @ 1.87. Does it look blue-ish? Yes, it does.
A pure black, without colour tone, would be Munsell N 1.0/0.0 and Night is not that - ever. But on its own, or in juxtaposition to other colours Night might look like black to many observers. To be pedantic in colour terms it is not "gunmetal" or "dark grey" either. It is blue. But be careful - the chip published in 'British Aviation Colours of World War Two' is a Munsell YR - yellow red - and effectively a very dark black brown. How come? Well, apart from a possible aberration it might have a lot to do with the variance in the carbon black pigment used - available from blue shade to red shade. Applied Night could look slightly blueish - or maybe slightly purple-brown, dependent upon actual pigment composition and illumination. However in colour science terms the standard was not pure black but BLUE. (There, I'm shouting it, but not from the rooftops).
Paul Lucas suggests that "Night was still being listed in the Vocab of Stores as a separate colour from Black in the mid-1960s"*. Perhaps another clue for any entrenched sceptics that Night was not simply "matt black".
The closest FS 595b colour to the current 642 Night, using the cited BSI L*a*b* values rather than the Munsell is 37030 @ 3.00 - it is actually a little darker - ('7' puts it in the "Miscellaneous" category). The FS 595b pigments used in 37030 are Rutile Titanium Dioxide (white), Quinacridone Magenta Y, Chrome Yellow Med. (Red Shade) and Carbon Black (Blue Shade). Quite a journey from simple carbon black and ultramarine.
Another contemporaneous report from the Ministry of Supply on the subject of 'Paint Materials - Substitution' provides some insight to the wartime availability of black pigments:-
The same report makes clear that there was no issue with the supply of ultramarine. Ultramarine is actually a generic name for a strong blue pigment that exists in several forms. Originally it referred to a pigment derived from lapus lazuli but has come to be used for synthetic pigments derived from a similar composition to lazurite, the blue mineral found in lapus lazuli. The best grades are a very strongly tinting and powerful blue but there are poorer grades, generally known as ultramarine ashes.
For this poor pilgrim of colour the opposite of Night is Day and the opposite of Sky is Earth or Sea .
origine ???
Paco
