Color Blindness | Blue Colored Glass Screens By Pr Pech

Prototype of an experimental box comprising 2 blue glass screens in an amateur-shaped box. And 2 colored cards, one with collages of paper and fabric. With: 2 LAS and 1 typewritten note. All in a cardboard case addressed to the University of Montpellier. Prototype designed by Jacques-Louis Pech (1889-1978), professor of medical physics at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier, in collaboration with the Appert brothers [Maurice-Adrien (1869-1941) and Léopold-Antonin (1867-1931) Appert]. This set, intended to demonstrate how colorblind people perceive the visible spectrum, was sent to André Rochon-Duvigneau (1863-1952), ophthalmologist and biologist, in April 1929. The test consisted of 4 "selector screens" made of blue glass, intended to reduce the visible spectrum to the limits characterizing the colored vision of a colorblind person. Observations must be made on a card colored with paint, with samples of tissues of different colors; the second card demonstrates the vision that a colorblind person has of it. Pech's experiments thus made it possible to know, for the first time, how colorblind people perceive the spectrum, by reproducing their vision in a normal subject. They were described in "Experimental Facts", published in the Medical Press on December 17, 1930. This prototype was sent to Doctor Rochon-Duvigneau, with a letter dated April 24, which we present in the box. A second letter, dated May 7 of the same year, is also enclosed. Both, signed by Pech, are addressed to "[H]is dear Master". This exceptional object, the only known example, bears witness to the diversity of the work of Professor Pech, who is otherwise renowned as a pioneer of medical radiology. He taught at the University of Montpellier from 1919 to 1961 and became its dean. Missing at the head of the case.