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| J.L. Lovibond and his tintometer |
But it worked for other things as well, and during World War I it was used by the British to accurately determine camouflage colors in order to match their surroundings. This was more or less confirmed in the following news article—
Anon, ORIGIN OF CAMOUFLAGE in Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport CT), March 12, 1928, p. 3—
A recent writer in an English magazine says it is a mistake to think that the art of camouflage originated during the World War. The idea of camouflage is probably very old, and the black and white chequer work on old wooden fighting ships is camouflage of a sort. The modern scientific use was, our correspondent believes, first begun by the late Mr. [Joseph Williams] Lovibond, the brewer [originator of the Degrees Lovibond scale], who showed him, in 1913, a screen painted with squares of three colors, about five inches across, which he had designed to hide guns on Salisbury Plain. A gun thus covered was shown to the British War Office authorities some years previously, and though a complete success, and the inspecting “brass hat” was much impressed, nothing further was done on the matter. The War Office front in those days, it is added, was practically impregnable to the inventor.
RELATED LINKS
Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? / Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage / Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage / Optical science meets visual art / Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /
