John Guild (1889–1979) was a British physicist specialized in

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...

, later transferred his focus on other studies. Guild worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at

Teddington Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically an Civil parish#ancient parishes, ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and situated close to the border with Surrey, the district became ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He was essential to the creation of the Colour Group in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Later, he became the second chairman of the group from 1943 to 1945, and one of the first honorary members in 1966.

Contributions

He is best known for collecting the data based on empirical evidence on the light sensitivity of the receptors and cones of the human eye. This work and the experiment of

William David Wright William David Wright (1906–1997) was an English people, English physicist who specialised in colour vision. He was known for his contribution to measuring the colours of the spectrum by adding different beams of red, green and blue lights toge ...

is the foundation of the international standardization of color measurement, the CIE 1931 Standard Colorimetric Observer. Other than his contributions to the standardization to

colorimetry Colorimetry is "the science and technology used to quantify and describe physically the human color perception". It is similar to spectrophotometry, but is distinguished by its interest in reducing spectra to the physical correlates of color p ...

, he also contributed to a wide range of

optical instruments An optical instrument is a device that processes light waves (or photons), either to enhance an image for viewing or to analyze and determine their characteristic properties. Common examples include periscopes, microscopes, telescopes, and cameras ...

and techniques. In 1924, he designed an

optical instrument An optical instrument is a device that processes light waves (or photons), either to enhance an image for viewing or to analyze and determine their characteristic properties. Common examples include periscopes, microscopes, telescopes, and camera ...

for the Optics Department of the National Physical Laboratory.

References

1889 births 1979 deaths Color scientists {{Improve categories, date=January 2025 British optical physicists