Ink Flows Away from the Light?
Through an ink accident, I noticed that my Noodlers RedBlack ink wicked very strangely through a wet paper towel. Seems my favorite ink is made of several different pigments - cool. The ink split into several colors, and the yellows went furthest, the light reds less far, the deep reds hardly at all, and only in one direction.
Only in one direction? Why not expand out equally in both directions on the paper? Seemed to me the yellow pigment was running away from the light coming in through the window.
< UPDATE 24-JAN-2023 >
Running some more tests today, I am getting different results. Hmmm. The pitfalls of racing to publishing!
Please ignore this post for a while :)
Maybe there was a slope to the table. Check that the slope does not matter.
wet towel
put one strip on a slope away from the window; put another strip on a slope towards the window.
Put some ink on the towel, wait a few minutes
See that the yellow runs both uphill and downhill, just always away from the window. (The yellow is not coming through well in the photo.)
Figure 1, the slope of the surface does not matter. One strip was sloped up, the other sloped down away from the window. Both times the yellow went away from the window.
Maybe an asymmetric orientation of the fibers wicks the different inks differently.
Maybe the paper towel has a built-in asymmetry in its structure, some artifact of the manufacturing process.
Cut strip and put opposite ends towards the window.
wet towel
Put some ink on the towel, wait a few minutes
See that regardless of towel orientation, the yellow runs away from the window.
Figure 2, when the towel is oriented oppositely, the lighter colors still flow away from the window.
Can I get the same result with artificial light?
Move away from the window, setup a flood light to be perpendicular to the window.
Wet the towel, mark with ink in several directions, wait a few minutes
See the line perpendicular to the light shows the same asymmetrical flow of colors.
The lines I drew parallel to the light behaved oddly - - direction for further research
Figure 3, with an artificial light, the yellow pigments move faster away from the light.
Conclusions
Seems to me that the light is imparting its momentum to the pigment molecules. And perhaps the yellow pigments are smaller molecules, and hence are easier to move along.
All good comments so far.
I will try,
1) in a dark room
2) Outdoors in the Sun - especially good in winter when the Sun is low on the horizon.
3-ish) I could try an infrared & black light bulbs... but probably will not actually go that far :)
I see this as quite likely an electrical phenomenon that utilizes light for energy and exclusion zone (EZ) layers as the means for ordering the variable rate of pigment advancement through the water/fiber medium.
Gerald Pollock has a most interesting video about the electrical nature of EZ layers that must certainly add insight to Dr. Clarage’s observations:
https://youtu.be/rfxDs1N_-3c
Among the observations of Pollock’s experiments includes increasing the directional flow of molecules up to 5 times by adding light. He did not mention whether or not the flow was generally parallel to the direction of light from the source.