Talk:Wilhelm Ostwald

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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on September 2, 2020 and September 2, 2022.

Does anyone have a reference re. him being buried in Riga now and when that may have happened? All biographies I looked up say that he's buried in Großbothen (Germany) near his house. There are photos of a family grave in Riga, with what looks like a memorial plaque for Wilhelm Ostwald, so I think this should be clarified and referenced. Or maybe it's a misunderstanding, so it should be removed from the article?

See for example Großbothen: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=144558638 Riga: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=69185596

ElektroPhil (talk) 15:56, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ostwald's contributions to information science should be added. --Reagle (talk) 16:17, 12 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I read up on Ostwald's color scheme? It appears to have some connection with the way Commodore Business Machines modified their proprietary ASCII scheme (being originally colorless, as was the case with their PET series of computers) with PETASCII color codes $05 (white, being displayed as a CTRL E symbol in quote mode) and $90 (black, being displayed as a CTRL P symbol in quote mode), and several other colors for their Vic 20 computer. Does this kind of information belong in Wikipedia?

The 1988 edition of Collier's Encyclopedia has an article on color, including a picture of the "Ostwald Color System" that appears to attempt to define all colors according to a "color tree" (looking a lot like an upside down funnel) to which small hexagonal-cum-trapezoidal chips were attached. It looks like about a thousand such chips were fixed to the funnel. I have no idea how Ostwald came up with his "color tree" short of using a lot of empirical evidence, and asking volunteers or subjects whether they could distinguish a particular color or not. I would guess that the chips could be distinguished chemically, but hard to distinguish with the human eye.

The main page of the article on Ostwald could be improved by supplying a full color picture of the Ostwald "color tree." 216.99.198.145 (talk) 21:12, 9 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are many books about the Ostwald color system. Or I can send you some papers if you want (shoot me an email). –jacobolus (t) 19:25, 11 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]