A good rule
Monday, November 30th, 2009A good rule, and one which a student of physical science would be certain to act upon with considerable care, would be never to show anything as reflected which was not there.
An interesting example of this kind was exhibited in the Academy some years ago. It so happened that a French man of science wrote a book on physical phenomena, beautifully illustrated. Among the illustrations was a coloured copy of a photograph of a soap bubble. Now the laboratory in the Collège de France, in which the photograph was taken, was, like yours, very well lighted by many windows, and the soap bubble was blown in the middle of it. A translation of this book appeared in English, and the illustrations were reproduced.
An artist had a most excellent idea. He thought he would paint a picture of a garden, which he did admirably. The foreground looked bare, so he thought he would put children playing in it. It next struck him, apparently, that the children did not seem to be quite sufficiently occupied, so he painted one blowing soap bubbles. But, alas ! less fortunate than you, the artist had no laboratory in which he could blow and study soap bubbles for himself; so what did he do ? He copied the bubble which was riddled with windows, although there were no windows in the garden. He thought that the nature of bubbles was windowy.
From Nature, Vol. 44, letters to the editor. 1891
