Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867; Physicists -- Great Britain -- Biography
disappeared. These phenomena could be renewed at pleasure, at any
instant of time, and upon any occasion, showing a perfect dependence of
cause and effect.'
In a beam of ordinary light the particles of the luminiferous ether
vibrate in all directions perpendicular to the line of progression; by
the act of polarization, performed here by Faraday, all oscillations
but those parallel to a certain plane are eliminated. When the plane
of vibration of the polarizer coincides with that of the analyzer, a
portion of the beam passes through both; but when these two planes
are at right angles to each other, the beam is extinguished. If by any
means, while the polarizer and analyzer remain thus crossed, the plane
of vibration of the polarized beam between them could be changed,
then the light would be, in part at least, transmitted. In Faraday's
experiment this was accomplished. His magnet turned the plane of
polarization of the beam through a certain angle, and thus enabled it
to get through the analyzer; so that 'the magnetization of light and the
illumination of the magnetic lines of force' becomes, when expressed
in the language of modern theory, the rotation of the plane of
polarization.
To him, as to all true philosophers, the main value of a fact was its
position and suggestiveness in the general sequence of scientific truth.
Hence, having established the existence of a phenomenon, his habit
was to look at it from all possible points of view, and to develop its
relationship to other phenomena. He proved that the direction of the
rotation depends upon the polarity of his magnet; being reversed when
the magnetic poles are reversed. He showed that when a polarized ray
passed through his heavy glass in a direction parallel to the magnetic
lines of force, the rotation is a maximum, and that when the direction
of the ray is at right angles to the lines of force, there is no
rotation at all. He also proved that the amount of the rotation is
proportional to the length of the diamagnetic through which the ray
passes. He operated with liquids and solutions. Of aqueous solutions he
tried 150 and more, and found the power in all of them. He then examined
gases; but here all his efforts to produce any sensible action upon
the polarized beam were ineffectual. He then passed from magnets to
currents, enclosing bars of heavy glass, and tubes containing liquids
and aqueous solutions within an electro-magnetic helix. A current sent
through the helix caused the plane of polarization to rotate, and always
in the direction of the current. The rotation was reversed when the
current was reversed. In the case of magnets, he observed a gradual,
though quick, ascent of the transmitted beam from a state of darkness
to its maximum brilliancy, when the magnet was excited. In the case of
currents, the beam attained at once its maximum. This he showed to be
due to the time required by the iron of the electro-magnet to assume its
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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