National School Bus Glossy Yellow (AMS-STD 13432) | |
---|---|
Color coordinates | |
Hex triplet | #f5a500 |
sRGB B (r, g, b) | (245, 165, 0) |
HSV (h, s, v) | (40°, 100%, 96%) |
CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (74, 99, 48°) |
Source | AMS Standard Color Chart, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration |
ISCC–NBS descriptor | Vivid yellow |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
School bus yellow is a color that was specifically formulated for use on school buses in North America in 1939. Originally officially named National School Bus Chrome, the color is now officially known in Canada and the U.S. as National School Bus Glossy Yellow.
The original pigment for this color was monoclinic lead(II) chromate ("chrome yellow") [1] which had superior steel-protecting properties compared to other pigments. Due to lead chromate's toxicity, a result of both its lead and chromate content, and because of lead sulfide darkening after exposure to air, the pigment was initially replaced by a mixture of cadmium sulfide ("cadmium yellow") and enough cadmium orange or selenium pigments to produce the equivalent color. However, cadmium is also an expensive and toxic heavy metal, so now many saturated-color pigments are now azo-based organics.
In April 1939, Dr. Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York, organized a conference that established 44 uniform national design, construction, and safety standards for school buses in America, including the exterior body color. [2] The yellow-orange color was selected because black lettering on it was most legible in semi-darkness, [2] and because it was conspicuous at a distance and unusual enough to become associated with school buses and groups of children en route. [3]
Transportation officials from each of the 48 states, representatives from bus chassis and body manufacturers, and paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paints participated in the conference, which was funded by a $5,000 grant (more than $100,000 today [4] ) from the Rockefeller Foundation. [2] The yellow-orange color, in three slight variants to allow for different paint formulations, [2] was adopted by the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) as Federal Standard No. 595a, Color 13432.
Dr. Cyr became known as the "Father of the Yellow School Bus." [3]
North American-style yellow school buses are being introduced in some parts of the United Kingdom, prompted by corporate links to the American industry, for example First Student UK, or a desire to re-brand school buses, such as West Yorkshire Metro's Mybus. [5]
A similar shade of yellow was used in Santiago, Chile's bus lines between 1992 and 2007.[ citation needed ]
Yellow school buses are becoming more prevalent in Australia, e.g. in and around Adelaide.
Chromium is a chemical element; it has symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal.
Cadmium is a chemical element; it has symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds, and like mercury, it has a lower melting point than the transition metals in groups 3 through 11. Cadmium and its congeners in group 12 are often not considered transition metals, in that they do not have partly filled d or f electron shells in the elemental or common oxidation states. The average concentration of cadmium in Earth's crust is between 0.1 and 0.5 parts per million (ppm). It was discovered in 1817 simultaneously by Stromeyer and Hermann, both in Germany, as an impurity in zinc carbonate.
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575–585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the RGB color model, used to create colors on television and computer screens, yellow is a secondary color made by combining red and green at equal intensity. Carotenoids give the characteristic yellow color to autumn leaves, corn, canaries, daffodils, and lemons, as well as egg yolks, buttercups, and bananas. They absorb light energy and protect plants from photo damage in some cases. Sunlight has a slight yellowish hue when the Sun is near the horizon, due to atmospheric scattering of shorter wavelengths.
A pigment is a powder used to add color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly insoluble and chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored substances which are soluble or go into solution at some stage in their use. Dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic. Pigments of prehistoric and historic value include ochre, charcoal, and lapis lazuli.
Orange is the colour between yellow and red on the spectrum of visible light. Human eyes perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between roughly 585 and 620 nanometres. In traditional colour theory, it is a secondary colour of pigments, produced by mixing yellow and red. In the RGB colour model, it is a tertiary colour. It is named after the fruit of the same name.
Vermilion is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar. It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a modern form, but is 11% brighter.
Cadmium pigments are a class of pigments that contain cadmium. Most of the cadmium produced worldwide has been for use in rechargeable nickel–cadmium batteries, which have been replaced by other rechargeable nickel-chemistry cell varieties such as NiMH cells, but about half of the remaining consumption of cadmium, which is approximately 2,000 tonnes annually, is used to produce colored cadmium pigments. The principal pigments are a family of yellow, orange and red cadmium sulfides and sulfoselenides, as well as compounds with other metals.
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. For several centuries the oil painting has been perhaps the most prestigous form in Western art, but oil paint has many practical uses, mainly because it is waterproof.
Cadmium sulfide is the inorganic compound with the formula CdS. Cadmium sulfide is a yellow salt. It occurs in nature with two different crystal structures as the rare minerals greenockite and hawleyite, but is more prevalent as an impurity substituent in the similarly structured zinc ores sphalerite and wurtzite, which are the major economic sources of cadmium. As a compound that is easy to isolate and purify, it is the principal source of cadmium for all commercial applications. Its vivid yellow color led to its adoption as a pigment for the yellow paint "cadmium yellow" in the 18th century.
Orpiment, also known as ″yellow arsenic blende″ is a deep-colored, orange-yellow arsenic sulfide mineral with formula As
2S
3. It is found in volcanic fumaroles, low-temperature hydrothermal veins, and hot springs and may be formed through sublimation.
Frank W. Cyr was an American educator and author known especially for his contribution to school busing.
Naples yellow, also called antimony yellow or lead antimonate yellow, is an inorganic pigment that largely replaced lead-tin-yellow and has been used in European paintings since the seventeenth century. While the mineral orpiment is considered to be the oldest yellow pigment, Naples yellow, like Egyptian blue, is one of the oldest known synthetic pigments. Naples yellow was used in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, finding widespread application during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Prior to its earliest occurrences in European paintings, the pigment was commonly employed in pottery, glazes, enamels, and glass. The pigment ranged in hue from a muted, earthy, reddish yellow to a bright light yellow.
Chrome yellow is a bright, warm yellow pigment that has been used in art, fashion, and industry. It is the premier orange pigment for many applications.
Zinc chromate, ZnCrO4, is a chemical compound, a salt containing the chromate anion, appearing as odorless yellow powder or yellow-green crystals, but, when used for coatings, pigments are often added. It is used industrially in chromate conversion coatings, having been developed by the Ford Motor Company in the 1920s.
Lead(II) chromate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula PbCrO4. It is a yellow orange solid that is very poorly soluble in water. It occurs also as the mineral crocoite. It is used as a pigment.
Chrome orange is a mixed oxide with the chemical formula Pb2CrO5. It can be made by treating a lead(II) salt with an alkaline solution of a chromate or by treating chrome yellow (PbCrO4) with strongly basic solution.
Lead-tin yellow is a yellow pigment, of historical importance in oil painting, sometimes called the "Yellow of the Old Masters" because of the frequency with which it was used by those famous painters.
Red pigments are materials, usually made from minerals, used to create the red colors in painting and other arts. The color of red and other pigments is determined by the way it absorbs certain parts of the spectrum of visible light and reflects the others. The brilliant opaque red of vermillion, for example, results because vermillion reflects the major part of red light, but absorbs the blue, green and yellow parts of white light.
Bismuth forms mainly trivalent and a few pentavalent compounds. Many of its chemical properties are similar to those of arsenic and antimony, although much less toxic.