![]() The American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer had developed a theory of camouflage based on countershading and disruptive coloration, which he had published in the controversial 1909 book Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom. It had made up its mind, and all Kerr's subsequent letters achieved nothing. Whether through this mixing of goals, or the Admiralty's skepticism about "any theory based upon the analogy of animals", the Admiralty claimed in July 1915 to have conducted "various trials" and decided to paint its ships in monotone grey, not adopting any of Kerr's suggestions. Kerr was thus hoping to achieve both a measure of invisibility and a degree of confusion for the enemy using a rangefinder. Similarly, he advised painting shaded parts of the ship white, and brightly lit parts in grey, again with smooth grading between them, making shapes and structures invisible. For example, he proposed painting ships' guns grey on top, grading to white below, so the guns would disappear against a grey background. However, in the same letter, Kerr also called for countershading, the use of paint to obliterate self-shading and thus to flatten out the appearance of solid, recognisable shapes. Hiding these would make ships less conspicuous, and would "greatly increase the difficulty of accurate range finding". Taking up the zebra example, Kerr proposed that the vertical lines of ships' masts be disrupted with irregular white bands. The target's masts are especially useful for rangefinding, so Kerr proposed disrupting these with white bands. Arthur Lismer similarly painted a series of dazzle ship canvases.Įyepiece image of a warship in a naval rangefinder, image halves not yet adjusted for range. Edward Wadsworth, who supervised the camouflaging of over 2,000 ships during the First World War, painted a series of canvases of dazzle ships after the war, based on his wartime work. Experiments were carried out on aircraft in both World Wars with little success.ĭazzle attracted the notice of artists such as Picasso, who claimed that Cubists like himself had invented it. So many factors were involved that it was impossible to determine which were important, and whether any of the colour schemes were effective. The result was that a profusion of dazzle schemes was tried, and the evidence for their success was, at best, mixed. Each ship's dazzle pattern was unique to avoid making classes of ships instantly recognisable to the enemy. ĭazzle was adopted by the Admiralty in the UK, and then by the United States Navy. Norman Wilkinson explained in 1919 that he had intended dazzle primarily to mislead the enemy about a ship's course and so cause them to take up a poor firing position. Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle is not to conceal but to make it difficult to estimate a target's range, speed, and heading. Credited to the British marine artist Norman Wilkinson, though with a rejected prior claim by the zoologist John Graham Kerr, it consisted of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours interrupting and intersecting each other. Send us feedback about these examples.SS West Mahomet in dazzle camouflage, 1918ĭazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle (in the U.S.) or dazzle painting, is a family of ship camouflage that was used extensively in World War I, and to a lesser extent in World War II and afterwards. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dazzle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Melvin Backman, Harper's BAZAAR, 13 Feb. 2021 Maybe there’s a little razzle- dazzle as the clothing offers backstory or some poetic descriptions of color and fabric. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 29 July 2022 Scroll on for more beauty looks that are bound to dazzle and inspire the season ahead. Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, Instead, TikTok leverages superior A.I.-driven algorithms to dazzle and hook users. 2023 And later this week, spring's final meteor shower – the Eta Aquarids – will dazzle early Friday. 2022 Jewels from Jil Sander and Bottega Veneta will dazzle and delight. Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 Sep. 2023 Heart-shape leaves decorated with splashes of white, green, pink, and yellow easily dazzle those unfamiliar with chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon'). Shira Ovide, Anchorage Daily News, 6 Mar. 2023 Don’t buy that super-fast internet Internet providers dazzle you with service plans promising BLAZING. Jenni Moore | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 13 Mar. Recent Examples on the Web Late March brings a visit from Carrie Underwood’s epic Denim & Rhinestones Tour at Moda Center, and Tank and the Bangas will dazzle a lucky audience at Revolution Hall.
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