Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- Obituary Notice
- 1876: Note on Certain Formulæ in the Calculus of Operations. (In a letter to Prof. Tait)
- 1876: An Experiment on Electro-Magnetic Rotation
- 1887: On the Foci of Lines seen through a Crystalline Plate
- 1877: On Certain Movements of Radiometers
- 1878: On the Question of a Theoretical Limit to the Apertures of Microscopic Objectives
- 1878: On an Easy and at the same time Accurate Method of Determining the Ratio of the Dispersions of Glasses intended for Objectives
- 1879: On a Method of detecting Inequalities of unknown periods in a series of Observations. (Note appended to a paper by Prof. B. Stewart and W. Dodgson)
- 1880: Description of the Card Supporter for Sunshine Recorders adopted at the Meteorological Office
- 1881: On a Simple Mode of Eliminating Errors of Adjustment in Delicate Observations of Compared Spectra
- 1881: Discussion of the Results of some Experiments with Whirled Anemometers
- 1878: On the Determination of the Constants of the Cup Anemometer by Experiments with a Whirling Machine
- 1881: Note on the Reduction of Mr Crookes's Experiments on the Decrement of the Arc of Vibration of a Mica Plate oscillating within a Bulb containing more or less Rarefied Gas
- 1882: On the Cause of the Light Border frequently noticed in Photographs just outside the Outline of a Dark Body seen against the Sky: with some Introductory Remarks on Phosphorescence
- 1882: Extracts from Reports of the Committee on Solar Physics
- 1882: Memorandum for the use of Observers with Professor Balfour Stewart's Actinometer, prepared by Professor G. G. Stokes, Sec.R.S., and adopted by the Committee on Solar Physics
- 1883: On the Highest Wave of Uniform Propagation. (Preliminary notice)
- 1880: On the Maximum Wave of Uniform Propagation, being a Second Supplement to a Paper on the Theory of Oscillatory Waves. (Not before published)
- 1891: Note on the Theory of the Solitary Wave
- 1895: The Outskirts of the Solitary Wave
- 1885: On a remarkable Phenomenon of Crystalline Reflection
- 1886: The Coefficient of Viscosity of Air
- 1889: Note on the Determination of Arbitrary Constants which appear as Multipliers of Semi-convergent Series
- 1891: On a Graphical Representation of the Results of Dr Alder Wright's Experiments on Ternary Alloys
- 1891: On an Optical Proof of the Existence of Suspended Matter in Flames
- 1891: On the Reactions occurring in Flames
- 1891: The Influence of Surface-Loading on the Flexure of Beams
- 1892: On the best Methods of Recording the direct Intensity of Solar Radiation
- 1896: On the Nature of the Röntgen Rays
- 1897: On the Nature of the Röntgen Rays (Wilde Lecture)
- 1898: Mathematical Proof of the Identity of the Stream Lines obtained by means of a Viscous Film with those of a Perfect Fluid moving in Two Dimensions
- 1902: On the Discontinuity of Arbitrary Constants that appear as Multipliers of Semi-Convergent Series
- 1886: On the Methods of Chemical Fractionation
- 1903: The Ultra-Violet Spectrum of Radium
- APPENDIX (Mathematical Tripos and Smith's Prize questions)
- INDEX
1885: On a remarkable Phenomenon of Crystalline Reflection
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- Obituary Notice
- 1876: Note on Certain Formulæ in the Calculus of Operations. (In a letter to Prof. Tait)
- 1876: An Experiment on Electro-Magnetic Rotation
- 1887: On the Foci of Lines seen through a Crystalline Plate
- 1877: On Certain Movements of Radiometers
- 1878: On the Question of a Theoretical Limit to the Apertures of Microscopic Objectives
- 1878: On an Easy and at the same time Accurate Method of Determining the Ratio of the Dispersions of Glasses intended for Objectives
- 1879: On a Method of detecting Inequalities of unknown periods in a series of Observations. (Note appended to a paper by Prof. B. Stewart and W. Dodgson)
- 1880: Description of the Card Supporter for Sunshine Recorders adopted at the Meteorological Office
- 1881: On a Simple Mode of Eliminating Errors of Adjustment in Delicate Observations of Compared Spectra
- 1881: Discussion of the Results of some Experiments with Whirled Anemometers
- 1878: On the Determination of the Constants of the Cup Anemometer by Experiments with a Whirling Machine
- 1881: Note on the Reduction of Mr Crookes's Experiments on the Decrement of the Arc of Vibration of a Mica Plate oscillating within a Bulb containing more or less Rarefied Gas
- 1882: On the Cause of the Light Border frequently noticed in Photographs just outside the Outline of a Dark Body seen against the Sky: with some Introductory Remarks on Phosphorescence
- 1882: Extracts from Reports of the Committee on Solar Physics
- 1882: Memorandum for the use of Observers with Professor Balfour Stewart's Actinometer, prepared by Professor G. G. Stokes, Sec.R.S., and adopted by the Committee on Solar Physics
- 1883: On the Highest Wave of Uniform Propagation. (Preliminary notice)
- 1880: On the Maximum Wave of Uniform Propagation, being a Second Supplement to a Paper on the Theory of Oscillatory Waves. (Not before published)
- 1891: Note on the Theory of the Solitary Wave
- 1895: The Outskirts of the Solitary Wave
- 1885: On a remarkable Phenomenon of Crystalline Reflection
- 1886: The Coefficient of Viscosity of Air
- 1889: Note on the Determination of Arbitrary Constants which appear as Multipliers of Semi-convergent Series
- 1891: On a Graphical Representation of the Results of Dr Alder Wright's Experiments on Ternary Alloys
- 1891: On an Optical Proof of the Existence of Suspended Matter in Flames
- 1891: On the Reactions occurring in Flames
- 1891: The Influence of Surface-Loading on the Flexure of Beams
- 1892: On the best Methods of Recording the direct Intensity of Solar Radiation
- 1896: On the Nature of the Röntgen Rays
- 1897: On the Nature of the Röntgen Rays (Wilde Lecture)
- 1898: Mathematical Proof of the Identity of the Stream Lines obtained by means of a Viscous Film with those of a Perfect Fluid moving in Two Dimensions
- 1902: On the Discontinuity of Arbitrary Constants that appear as Multipliers of Semi-Convergent Series
- 1886: On the Methods of Chemical Fractionation
- 1903: The Ultra-Violet Spectrum of Radium
- APPENDIX (Mathematical Tripos and Smith's Prize questions)
- INDEX
Summary
Introduction.
In a letter to me, dated March 29, 1854, the late Dr W. Bird Herapath enclosed for me some iridescent crystals of chlorate of potash, which he thought were worth my examination. He noticed the intense brilliancy of the colour of the reflected light, the change of tint with the angle of incidence, and the apparent absence of polarisation in the colour seen by reflection.
The crystals were thin and fragile, and rather small. I did not see how the colour was produced, but I took for granted that it must be by some internal reflection, or possibly oblique refraction, at the surfaces of the crystalline plates that the light was polarised and analysed, being modified between polarisation and analysation by passage across the crystalline plate, the normal to which I supposed must be sufficiently near to one of the optic axes to allow colours to be shown, which would require no great proximity, as the plates were very thin. To make out precisely how the colours were produced seemed to promise a very troublesome investigation on account of the thinness and smallness of the crystals: and supposing that the issue of the investigation would be merely to show in what precise way the phenomenon was brought about by the operation of well-known causes, I did not feel disposed to engage in it, and so the matter dropped.
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- Mathematical and Physical Papers , pp. 164 - 179Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1905