Lighting Res. Technol. 34,4 (2002) pp.
347–349
Book reviews
Johnston, Sean F. 2001. A history of light and
colour measurement, science in the shadows.
Bristol: Institute of Physics Publishing. 281pp
hard covers. £45.00. ISBN: 0 7503 0754 4.
Photometry is continually changing as knowledge,
understanding and technology have developed. For
two centuries from 1720, all measurements
depended on visual matching to a calibrated
standard lamp; physical measurements started
with the photoelectric cell at about 1910 and
photovoltaic ‘light meter’ at about 1935, which
could measure absolute light levels. This is a rich
Ž eld for a historian. Dr Johnston’s book exam-
ines it thoroughly, exploring the technologies
and personalities, the arguments and uncertainties.
This is an important study of the backgrounds,
which may be unknown to many present-day
photometrists.
The major agreements in 1931 (CIE colour
system) and in 1939 and 1979 (deŽ nition of the
candela) are the basis of our present techno-
logies, more familiar to us but not examined in
the same detail. We have a system of units for
which we must thank the French: André Blondel
identiŽ ed the lumen in 1894 and chose its name;
Emile Violle proposed in 1881 what is now the
international standard of luminance at the melt-
ing temperature of pure platinum. These are
physical quantities that we use for measuring
something that we perceive as a sensation.
Photometry is an exercise in engineering
rather than a study in science. Light (radiated
power capable of being seen) is not easy to
evaluate; we now postulate that one Watt of a
green radiation (monochromatic of 555 nm
wavelength) is seen as 683 lumens, or lower
values for other colours according to the empiri-
cal but agreed visibility function (Vl). This is a
precise engineering deŽ nition, as real as a metre
of length or a degree of temperature. It is another
way of saying that a black body at the melting
Ó The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers 2002
point of platinum has a luminance of 60 candelas
per square centimetre.
Dr Johnston subtitles his book ‘Science in the
shadows’ and in his last chapter headed ‘An
undisciplined science’, argues that photometry is
a languishing peripheral science with an unin-
tuitive system of units. If history had stopped in
1950, this might have been a fair judgement, but
it didn’t.
This does not detract from the value of the
book. It tells stories of early developments in
visual photometry that may not be taught in the
twenty-Ž rst century. But it is a history, and not
a text book, and it records what happened in the
period that it covers. It even includes four
delightful pages on Professor Blondlot’s 1903
‘discovery’ of N-rays. We are bound to link this
with Roentgen’s earlier discovery of X-rays.
They were said to stimulate vision in the dark
and their spectrum could be analysed by a prism
and lenses made of pure aluminium. There was
great excitement but by 1905 Blondlot’s claims
had been dismissed. This was rather sad because
he was an eminent physicist and a member of
the French Academy, but it was later described
as ‘the greatest scientiŽ c delusion of our time’.
This story is perhaps a warning about other
inventions in our time for which exaggerated
claims may be made although they are all subject
to the laws of optics.
This is a book to be enjoyed, remembering
that the burst of new understanding and new
technology in the past 50 years has brought new
vitality into photometry and colorimetry. Visual
matches have been replaced by photo-cells,
spectroradiometers and dedicated computers to
our great beneŽ t and we can rely on their read-
ings with much more understanding.
JG Holmes
President Illuminating Engineering Society
1951–1952
10.1191/1365782802li051xx