Editorial Comment
Cooperation Among Color Experts
THE papers on the Munsell Color System which appear in this issue will appeal on their own merits to all workers in the field of colorimetry. To others, the plan of simultaneous publication will be of interest as an example of an earnest effort, initiated by the authors, to advance scientific knowledge in an orderly manner. Colorimetry has always been a controversial subject. It is of importance to chemists, physicists, physiologists, and psychologists, each group having its own background and habits of thought. To confound the confusion, a term may connote different concepts in the different fields, or several terms may refer to the same concept.
Impartial evaluation of the Munsell Color System is especially difficult because the writings of A. H. Munsell include a discussion of two systems whose underlying concepts are fundamentally different. One set of concepts appeals to the instincts of the physicist, while the other seems more natural to the psychologist. As a practical matter the two systems may be much alike, and no useful purpose would be served if the importance of one system were exaggerated at the expense of the other. Realizing that this might occur if the papers in this series were published separately as individual contributions, the several authors have undertaken to forestall such a result by a free interchange of data, and by correspondence and conferences aimed at a reconciliation of opposing points of view. When a unified plan of publication had been evolved, the manuscripts were submitted to an associate editor of the Journal who was empowered by the authors to make such additional changes as were found necessary to present an impartial description of the work of A. H. Munsell in a language which is consistent throughout the series.
It is probable that the field of colorimetry will soon supply another example of cooperation among scientists on an even larger scale. In 1920, the Optical Society appointed a Committee on Colorimetry which published its report in the Journal two years later. This report was widely accepted and the supply of reprints was soon exhausted. As the subject of colorimetry became of greater importance and better data became available, a new committee was appointed which has been engaged for several years on the preparation of a report that will present the composite thoughts of a large group of experts who have often discussed the same phenomena in a variety of languages. In size and subject matter, this report is assuming the aspect of a treatise, and the care that is being taken in its preparation should endow it with a long and useful life. It is greatly to the credit of the individuals on this committee who have worked so assiduously, that they are willing and eager, purely for the sake of advancing the art, to relinquish the prestige that attaches to the publication of individual contributions, and to cooperate in an endeavor where the status of an individual member of the committee approaches complete anonymity.
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