Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1880 — COLOR BLINDNESS. [ARTICLE]

COLOR BLINDNESS.

Testing the Vision of the Employes of the Pennsylvania Pursuant to an order of Superintendent James McCrea, of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the arduous task of examining 5,000 employes attached to the line and working on trains and ferryboats, with a view to discover to what extent color blindness prevailed among them, was commenced yesterday morning in a room at the depot in Jersey City. Eight or ten men were called in at a time, and were tested in the first place for acuteness of vision, the testcard being placed at a distance of about twenty feet from the observer. It was ascertained by this means whether the men’s eyes were sufficiently sharp to read small type at the distance mentioned, the result in each case being carefully noted. The next test was for the purpose of discovering whether the men were able to judge of the relative distinctness of objects seen in different positions, and to obtain an accurate knowledge of this the men were directed to look at a quarter-inch aperture in a screen twenty feet distant -with a strong light behind it, and were then called upon to state in what shape it appeared to them. The test, however simple it may appear to the reader, was by no means so to some of the subjects. What appeared oval to one seemed triangular to another, and vice versa. The color test was then proceeded with, and sixteen of the men who had passed successfully so far came to grief. Three skeins of woolen yarn were used, one being light green, the second rose, and the third red, and were marked respectively 1,2, 3. Each of these was placed on a table in front of the person examined at a distance of three feet, and, with the vision of either eye obstructed by a spectacle frame, the man under examination was requested to name the color. He was also directed to pick out a similar shade to the one in question from different skeins of woolen yarn, numbered from one to thirty-six. One young man correctly designated the test skein as red, but on being told, to select a similar shade from the skeins before him he picked three shades of blue, two of yellow, and one of red. He could distinguish no difference, and the same thing happened to half a dozen others who followed him. The skeins on the row 1 were then divided into three sets, with twelve numbers in each, and the men were then examined as to color blindness. Some were able to distinguish all the shades of green, but failed lamentably in picking out the different shades of red. The work of examination occupied the greater part of the day, but the importance of the subject has impressed the directors greatly, and it has been decided to apply the test /to all engineers, firemen, and brakemen in all the branches of the railroad. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway Company, as well as the Erie Company, have the subject under consideration, and it is likely the system will be adopted on their respective lines. —New York Herald.