Colour Anomaly, the Rayleigh Equation and Selective Adaptation

Abstract

So long ago as 1878, von Kries¹ reported that adapting lights fail to upset colour matches. This observation was modified in 1934 by Prof. W. D. Wright, who showed that lights of very high intensity, above about 15,000 photons, do upset colour matches². Wright considers the breakdown at glare intensities to be due to radical photochemical changes. G. S. Brindley has recently reported a detailed investigation of this breakdown at high intensities³. It might be suggested that the original findings of von Kries—that matches do not break down after adaptation with intensities within the normal range—has important implications for theories of colour vision, and in particular for the explanation of the Rayleigh equation.