The form of Lehmann’s “Crystallisation Microscope,” as now constructed
by Zeiss, is shown in Fig. 102. Its essential features are that the
glass object-plate, which is somewhat wider than the usual microscope 3
by 1 inches slip, is supported by little metallic columns at a height an
inch or more above the ordinary stage, and may be heated from below by a
miniature Bunsen burner, which is provided with a delicate graduated
gas-tap and is adjustable for its position, swinging in or out as
desired. The small Bunsen flame may be converted into a blowpipe flame
if necessary, an air-blast attachment to a mixing reservoir being
provided, to which the arm of the burner is hinged. Two cooling blasts,
connected with a gas-holder of air, are also provided, and are
adjustable to the most suitable symmetrical positions above the slide
for directing the cooling air on the part of the latter where the liquid
is situated. These arrangements enable the substance on the slide to be
rapidly or slowly heated or cooled at will. Electric connections are
also provided, in the event of the observer desiring to study the
behaviour of the liquid crystals under the influence of the electric
current.
Considerably later, in the year 1889, the attention of Lehmann was
called by Reinitzer to another similarly singular substance, cholesteryl
benzoate, which appeared to consist of an aggregate of minute crystals
which flow as readily as oil, while preserving many of the characters of
crystals.
In the next year, 1890, the substance para-azoxyphenetol, then recently
discovered by Gattermann, was observed by Lehmann to form a turbid
“melt” on fusion, which consisted of an aggregate of crystals flowing
with a mobility equal to that of water, and which take the form of
spherical drops showing a dark kernel inside, as shown at _a_ in Fig.
103, quite unlike a drop of ordinary liquid. The kernel disappears on
shaking, but reappears on coming to rest again. In polarised light the
drops show dichroism, that is two different colours in different parts
or directions, being divided into white and yellow parts, the yellow as
a pair of opposite approximately 60°-sectors, as indicated at _c_ in
Fig. 103. Under crossed Nicols they show a black cross, as represented
at _d_ in Fig. 103.
Now obviously these drops are doubly refractive, and their whole optical
behaviour corresponds to the arrangement of the molecules in concentric
circles, such as that suggested at _b_ in Fig. 103.
[Illustration:
FIG. 103.—Liquid Crystals of Para-azoxy-phenetol arranged in Spherical
Drops.
]
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