An online database of camouflage used by 
United State Naval Warships during WWII


The Development of Naval Camouflage 1914 – 1945
Part II: United States Navy – World War I


By Alan Raven

  

(Article reprinted courtesy of  Plastic Ship Modeler Magazine issue #96/4)

 

the retina of three light rays, the red, the green, and the violet.  N the retina there are three sets of rods and cones, one stimulated by the red, one by the green, and the third by the violet.  In proportion as they are stimulated and the sensations carried to the brain by the optic nerve, the brain interprets color.  Grays are produced by the three sets of rods and cones working in proper balance.

 

The proportion of constituent colors to give a white are: violet, 44; red, 36; green, 20.  Therefore, area covered with these three colors in this proportion would give an overall grey.  With the colors in this proportion, the ground color would be violet.

 

In order to suit the light conditions of a locality, it would be necessary to determine the prevailing character of light conditions of the locality; i.e., whether warm, (with reds predominating), or cold, (with violet or green predominating). The proportionate areas for the three colors would then be varied to suit the prevailing light conditions.

 

The problem then becomes in what proportion of red, green, and violet, and in what intensity, shall the ship be painted to reproduce the interrupted horizon light ? By means of the Ives tint photometer colors can be measured.  The light of the horizon to any object can be analyzed and there can be obtained a numerical expression for the proportion of red, green, and violet light making it up.  The red, green, and violet paints used must have a uniform surface of a dull finish, otherwise they will not only reflect colored light, but also a certain amount of white light – and a uniform strength in reflecting light of their respective colors.  With a knowledge of the reflecting powers and the values of paints and an expression for the horizontal gray, it becomes a problem to obtain the proportion of colored light to be reflected in order to imitate the light reflected from the horizon.

 

In placing these colors upon a ship the size of the patches depend upon the range at which it is desired to conceal the ship; i.e., they must be of such size that at any range the color mixture will have taken place upon the eye and they will be no longer distinguishable as patches.

 

It is of course impossible to meet all variations of changing atmospheric conditions; and yet a ship so painted does make a gray which will respond to light changes as no flat tone will.  Battleship gray is made from pigments which have no color, black and white; the gray is made on the boat and carried to the eye in mixed paint.  As it cannot change its color it will never quite fit it surroundings.  The advantage of putting on separate sections of red, green and violet is that, if the source of illumination becomes warm, the red will count and the gray will be a warm gray.  If the light becomes cool, then the red will go down and the green and violet will come up.

 

Furthermore by changing the ground – e.g., from a violet ground with red and green spots to a red ground with green and violet spots – the structural and characteristic lines and angles of a ship can be either softened or destroyed.  According as the ship is viewed through the red or green or blue glass of a ray filter the ship presents three different images and though none of them an image so definite as a ship painted with a flat pigment gray.  Moreover each color requires an adjustment of the range-finder in focal distances.  If it is correct for red, it is correct for green and violets and similarly for the other colors.  If the patches of colors are properly proportioned and disposed it is practicably impossible to find a sharp outline anywhere on a rangefinder; without a sharp line, range finding becomes very inaccurate”.

 

The Warner system, in contrast with Mackay, aimed to disrupt the identity of the vessel by the use of irregular shaped panels of red, blue, green and white, and a series of grays ranging from a very dark to nearly white.  Warner considered it impossible to hide a ship by means of paint (whatever the arrangement of color or pattern), except at very considerable distances.  No attempt was made in his design to promote invisibility within five miles of the observer.  At first glance the Warner system could be easily by mistaken for one of the Wilkinson Dazzle pattern.

 

The Toch system was officially described as follows: “Four colors, a very light blue-gray, a dark blue-gray, a dark green, and a light pink-purple.  The colors are said to have been selected for their so-called “vibrating” qualities.  They are laid in large diagonal streaks, approximately “S” shaped, covering the height of the hull and slanting generally towards the bow.  The dark colors predominate in the lower part of the hull and the lighter on the upper part, along the skyline and on the ends.  All lines, both vertical and horizontal, are broken by the alternation of colors.  The superstructure, masts, funnels, and stacks are painted mainly in a very light blue-gray, irregularly splotched with darker gray and light pink-purple.  The green does not appear in the superstructure.  The colors are intended to blend and fade out at long distances  into the general tone of the sky and water.  Within the distances of a submerged submarine’s range-observing and torpedo-firing stations, the very large splotching and strong contrasting colors are intended to give a “dazzle” effect and thus influence the accuracy of the range finding.  In other words the Toch system embodies both the low visibility and “dazzle” ideas.  The first effect is sought though using colors of alleged low-visibility value and the latter by placing them in strong contrast and in large splotches”.

 

The Brush system was designed solely to promote invisibility, by producing an overall tone of gray by the use of counter-shading under the bow and stern.  It was officially described as follows:

 

“The Brush system seeks low visibility.  It is based on the hypothesis that the illuminating effect of light upon the different surfaces of an object varies substantially as the cosine of the angle incidence, being maximum when such angle is zero – that is to say, when the surface illuminated is perpendicular to the rays of light and vice versa.  Further, the system rests upon the view that the most effective blending of colors to produce the shades with which to paint  each of the different surfaces in order to secure invisibility, are obtained by mixing together  light and dark colors – white and black, for example – in proportions equal of incidence for that surface.  With the shades of color thus obtained, graduated from dark to light upon its various surfaces, and by preventing practically all contrasts of light and shade on a object, it is thought possible by the artist to secure a nearly perfect monochrome.  It is also believed that the same monochrome effect may be obtained without a mixing of the colors, by painting the various surfaces with alternate dark and light stripes or squares, or dark with regularly disposed light spots or vice versa, proportioning the dark area to the light area on each different surface substantially as the cosine of the angle of incidence”.

 

The last of the five systems, that proposed by Herzog, was supposed to give a measure of concealment by using short ray colors, i.e., those from the lower end of the spectrum – blue, green, violet, arranged in such a manner so as to produce a “Shimmer or scintillation” similar to that produced by heat waves on the surface of water.  Herzog described his system as follows: “Diffusion ad interference of light rays setting up vibrations is sought by means of more or less concentric curved sets of panels of blue, green, and violet as a gray base, which

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