Purkinje Effect - History

History

The effect was discovered in 1819 by Jan Evangelista Purkyně. Purkyně was a polymath who would often meditate at dawn during long walks in the blossomed Bohemian fields. Purkinje noticed that his favorite flowers appeared bright red on a sunny afternoon, while at dawn they looked very dark. He reasoned that the eye has not one but two systems adapted to see colors, one for bright overall light intensity, and the other for dusk and dawn.

Purkinje wrote in his Neue Beiträge:

Objectiv hat der Grad der Beleuchtung grossen Einfluss auf die Intensität der Farbenqualität. Um sich davon recht lebendig zu überzeugen, nehme man vor Anbruch des Tages, wo es eben schwach zu dämmern beginnt, die Farben vor sich. Anfangs sieht man nur schwarz und grau. Gerade die lebhaftesten Farben, das Roth und das Grün, erscheinen am schwärzesten. Das Gelb kann man von Rosenroth lange nicht Unterscheiden. Das Blau war mir zuerst bemerkbar. Die rothen Nüancen, die sonst beim Tageslichte am hellsten brennen, nämlich carmen, zinnobar und orange zeigen sich lange am dunkelsten, durchaus nicht in Verhältnisse ihrer mittleren Helligkeit. Das Grün erscheint mehr bläulich, und seine gelbe Tinte entwickelt sich erst mit zunehmenden Tage.

Objectively, the degree of illumination has a great influence on the intensity of color quality. In order to prove this most vividly, take some colors before daybreak, when it begins slowly to get lighter. Initially one sees only black and grey. Particularly the brightest colors, red and green, appear darkest. Yellow cannot be distinguished from a rosy red. Blue became noticeable to me first. Nuances of red, which otherwise burn brightest in daylight, namely carmine, cinnabar and orange, show themselves as darkest for quite a while, in contrast to their average brightness. Green appears more bluish to me, and its yellow tint develops with increasing daylight only.