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XX.—On the Influence of the Doubly Refracting Force of Calcareous Spar on the Polarisation, the Intensity, and the Colour of the Light which it Reflects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

Extract

It was the opinion of Malus, and adopted by Arago, Biot, and other philosophers, that the surfaces of regularly crystallised bodies acted upon light in the very same manner as the surfaces of ordinary bodies, whether solid or fluid; or, in other words, that the reflecting forces extended beyond the limits of the forces that produced double refraction and polarisation. Having been led to question this opinion, I undertook an extensive series of experiments on crystalline reflexion, as exhibited in calcareous spar, a crystal peculiarly fitted for this purpose, from its perfect transparency and great double refraction; and I published the results of these experiments in the Philosophical Transactions for 1819.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1866

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References

page 235 note * In the plane of the principal section. See Phil. Trans., 1819, p. 158.

page 235 note † E′ and O′ are the extraordinary and ordinary images from the spar, and E and O the same from the prism surface.

page 238 note * The change was 90° at the polarising angle of the spar and oil surface.