Method of designating colors
D.B. Judd, K.L. Kelly · Journal of research of the National Bureau of Standards · 1939
In 1931 the first chairman of the Inter-Society Color Council, E. N. Gathercoal, proposed on behalf of the United States Pharmacopoeial Revision Committee the problem of devising a system of color designations for drugs and chemicals. He said, "A means of designating colors in the United States Pharmacopoeia, in the National Formulary, and in general pharmaceutical literature is desired; such designation to be sufficiently standardized as to be acceptable and usable by science, sufficiently broad to be appreciated and used by science, art, and industry, and sufficiently commonplace to be understood, at least in a general way, by the whole public." With the assistance of the American Pharmaceutical Association, and following plans outlined in 1933 by the Inter-Society Color Council, there has been worked out a solution for this problem, which substantially fulfills the requirements laid down by Dr. Gathercoal.