the agency is given in parentheses after the color name. An explanation of these abbreviations is given on pages 36 and 84.
A short description of each of these color-name systems follows with such points of its development or use as are necessary to make clear its part in the dictionary.
In 1947 E. I. Stearns, Chairman, Committee on Color of the AATCC, and F. T. Simon prepared a table specifying the 1939 ISCC-NBS equivalents of the 88 color names to be used in the forthcoming second edition of the British Colour Index [58]. The ISCC-NBS equivalents on the present revised system were derived from this table and were checked by Dr. Stearns. Since there is a Colour Index color name for each part of the color solid, many of these 88 names necessarily refer to large ranges of color.
In the past, various writers such as Wharton [61], Saccardo [57], and Ridgway [56] had tried to develop a system of color terminology for use by biologists. Ridgway’s outstanding early work has been considably used. H. A. Dade of The Imperial Mycological Institute [7] has made a further attempt to bring order to this field by using Ridgway’s colored samples and notations and applying to them a much smaller set of color terms. To do this, he laid out a color space according to Ridgway’s notation and indicated the color range of each color term by marking off the corresponding Ridgway block. The color terms are all hi Latin. In order to get the ISCC-NBS equivalents, it was first necessary to translate the Ridgway notations into Munsell notations using the work of D. H. Hamly, University of Toronto [15], and thence obtain the ISCC-NBS color designations.
As early as 1920, E. F. Hickson, later Chief of the Paint Section at the National Bureau of Standards, envisioned a federal color card which would show samples of all of the many colors of paints used by the Federal services and thus facilitate their procurement. Many years of effort by Mr. Hickson culminated in the promulgation in 1950 of Federal Specification TT-C-595, Colors; (for) Ready-Mixed Paints [9], a joint project of the National Bureau of Standards and the Federal Supply Service of the General Services Administration. The Munsell notations of the 187 colors in TT-C-595 were determined by us by visual comparison of the colors with the scales of the Munsell Book of Color under the recommended conditions of lighting and viewing.
Recognizing the need for an up-to-date chart of named colors for use in describing the colors of flowers, Robert F. Wilson, Secretary of the British Colour Council, developed in 1938 the Horticultural Colour Chart which has been issued in two volumes by The British Colour Council in collaboration with The Royal Horticultural Society [4],
The color system is based on a hue circle of 64 saturated colors, supplemented by tints (admixtures of more white pigment), shades (admixtures of less white pigment), and tones (produced by adding gray pigment) making 200 named colors. All of these full colors, tints, shades, and tones are shown in the Horticultural Colour Chart not only printed solid but also in three dilutions with the white of the paper by screen-plate printing. The ISCC-NBS designations corresponding to these names were found from Munsell notations of the solid printings. These Munsell notations were supplied by Dorothy Nickerson, U. S. Department of Agriculture, some found by her by visual comparison with the Munsell scales, others based on spectrophotometric curves supplied through the courtesy of W. E. Knowles Middleton, National Research Council of Canada.
No introduction is needed for the Maerz and Paul Dictionary of Color [32]; this monumental work has become a by-word in the field of color. The Munsell notations of the colored samples on the first twenty of the 56 color charts were published by Dorothy Nickerson in 1947 [44], The Munsell notations of the named samples in the remaining 36 charts were determined by us by visual comparison of the colors with the scales of the Munsell Book of Color under the recommended conditions of lighting and viewing. Although the second edition had been published by the time this work was started, it was decided to use only the first edition because the extensive research on color names was expressed originally in terms of the color plates of the first edition, the colors of which are only approximately reproduced in the second edition. A considerable study was necessary to list all of the different color names both from the charts in the front of the book and also from the lengthy index.
Many of the color names listed in Maerz and Paul consist of a specific name followed by a generic name given in brackets, thus: Canary [Yellow], In our listing of these names we have copied the brackets as well as the names. There are a number of interesting color names in the index which are not assigned colored samples. This is due, according to the authors, either to the lack of a definite description of the associated color in the literature or to the fact that the color name describes a range of color. These color names are necessarily omitted from the present dictionary.
The equivalent ISCC-NBS color designations for the color names of the 17 molded urea plastics and for the 12 polystyrene plastics were taken directly from the two publications of the Department of Commerce based on measurements of these samples at the National Bureau of Standards; Colors for Molded Urea Plastics [5] and Colors for Polystyrene Plastics [6], The names are based on Munsell renotations, and have been checked by Fred G.
