COLOUR BLINDNESS

Evening Star, Issue 23692, 27 September 1940, Page 9

COLOUR BLINDNESS

DISCOVERY IS " BUNKUM " Scientists in England were interested in the discovery announced recently at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, United States ot America, that men who were colourblind could see through camouflage better than men with- normal vision. It was reported that the United States Army Corps was searching its hies tor the names of candidates rejected because of colour blindness. What was to be done with them was uncertain, but the Army’s School of Aviation was reindexing their names. . One of the English scientists, . Dr Edridge-Green, an expert on colour blindness, declared that the theory that colour-blind men could pierce camouflage was as a general rule “ bunkum. “ Only in certain rare cases,’ he said, “ would it be possible for a colourblind man to spot something which a man of normal vision did not see. In the ordinary way a colour-blind man would see less of form and colour. “ In the rare case—when one entire colour does not exist for the individual—the ability to pierce camouflage might exist. If, for example, red was a ‘ dead colour ’ to the man and the gun was camouflaged in red, it would look jet black to him and would therefore be obvious. But if the American Air Force is goin" to recruit observers from colour-blind people it is making a ghastly mistake, even with the very primitive form of camouflage the world has evolved to-day.” The American discovery was made in the course of tests to determine how many artillery guns, heavily camouflaged, could be spotted from the air. A man with normal sight was able to pick out only 10 of the guns, but a colour-blind observer picked out all 40 of the guns.