Have you ever stopped to think how many colours there are in a rainbow? Seven or, perhaps, nine as the title of the book suggests? It appears, there are many more and still the title is correct. Why so?The book will tell you what is visible and invisible light, how it helps man to acquaint himself with his environment, investigate it, penetrate into the mysteries of matter and space. You will also find out how man learned to see in the dark, transmit images over long distances and record processes occurring within millionth fractions of a second. The book contains a wealth of other information on the latest achievements in science and technology.The author, Alexander Steinhaus, is a Soviet specialist in electronics and TV. Many years of industrial experience served as a fertile ground for his literary career on which he embarked with ardour. He has written many sci-fic articles, some stories and a few books, among which are “The Nine Colours of the Rainbow”, “A Factory Without Men”, and others. At present A. Steinhaus is working at a large sci-fic book on television.The book was translated from the Russian by David Sobolfy and was published by Mir in 1966.ContentsLIGHT 9 A Piece of Glass 10 Simple Experiments that Explained Very Complex Phenomena and Even the Rainbow 13 Questions and Answers 20 What Language Does Science Speak? 24 A Word from the Dictionary 26Free Son of Ether 31 Pros and Cons 34 Searches, and Again Bells 38 Light and Shade 43 Light and Electricity 48Two Discoveries 51 Spectrum of Electromagnetic Vibrations 54 Extraordinary Tails 60 The Very Tiniest 63 The Photoelectric Effect  72 Interlude 81 After the Crisis 82THE EYE AND VISION 93Prelude 93 Our Eyes 94 Properties of the Human Eye 105 Colours 129 From Facts to Theory 142 Inexplicable Phenomena 144TELESCOPES AND MICROSCOPES 153 Telescopes 164 Microscopes 197PHOTOGRAPHY AND CINEMATOGRAPHY 210 Imprinted Light 210 A Ray of Light in a Dark Room 212Photons, Silver and Chemistry 219 Rivals or Friends? 225 The All-Seeing Bye 231 The Three-Colour Theory in Action 243 Autographs of Invisible Particles 246 Recorded Movement 249 Stopping the Instant 252 A Cinematograph Gun 258LIGHT AND ELECTRONICS 262Electronic Cells 266The Multiplication Principle 269Sensitive Eyes 275The Fate of the Lost Photons 260New Roads 263A Light Amplifier 286An Electricity Factory 286Secret of the Code 289The Electronic Eye 296TELEVISION 307 Telecasting from Space 315Now Trends in Old Fields 322 The Television Eye in the Air 327 The Control Room Engineer’s Helpers 331 Television and the Worker 334 Into the Depths of Seas and Oceans 338 The Eyes and Hands of the Experimenter 341AFTERWORD 344 APPENDICES 347 INDEX 351