On the Connexion of the Physical SciencesSomerville, Mary
Science
On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences
Somerville, Mary
Physical sciences; Science
The least refrangible part of the solar spectrum possesses also, under
certain circumstances, a bleaching property, by which the metallic salts
are restored to their original whiteness after being blackened by
exposure to common daylight, or to the most refrangible rays of the
solar spectrum.
Paper prepared with iodide of silver, when washed over with ferrocyanite
of potash, blackens rapidly when exposed to the solar spectrum. It
begins in the violet rays and extends over all the space occupied by the
dark chemical rays, and over the whole visible spectrum down to the
extreme red rays. This image is coloured, the red rays giving a reddish
tint and the blue a blueish. In a short time a bleaching process begins
under the red rays, and extends upwards to the green, but the space
occupied by the extreme red is maintained perfectly dark. Mr. Hunt found
that a similar bleaching power is exerted by the red rays on paper
prepared with protocyanide of potassium and gold with a wash of nitrate
of silver.
The application of a moderately strong hydriodate of potash to darkened
photographic paper renders it peculiarly susceptible of being whitened
by further exposure to light. If paper prepared with bromide of silver
be washed with ferrocyanate of potash while under the influence of the
solar spectrum, it is immediately darkened throughout the part exposed
to the visible rays down to the end of the red, some slight interference
being perceptible about the region of the orange and yellow. After this
a bleaching action begins over the part occupied by the red rays, which
extends to the green. By longer exposure an oval spot begins again to
darken about the centre of the bleached space; but, if the paper receive
another wash of the hydriodate of potash, the bleaching action extends
up from the green, over the region occupied by the most refrangible rays
and considerably beyond them, thus inducing a negative action in the
most refrangible part of the spectrum.
In certain circumstances the red rays, instead of restoring darkened
photographic paper to its original whiteness, produce a deep red colour.
When Sir John Herschel received the spectrum on paper somewhat
discoloured by exposure to direct sunshine, instead of whiteness, a red
border was formed extending from the space occupied by the orange, and
nearly covering that on which the red fell. When, instead of exposing
the paper in the first instance to direct sunshine, it was blackened by
the violet rays of a prismatic spectrum, or by a sunbeam that had
undergone the absorptive action of a solution of ammonia-sulphate of
copper, the red rays of the condensed spectrum produced on it, not
whiteness, but a full and fiery red, which occupied the whole space on
which any of the visible red rays had fallen; and this red remained
unchanged, however long the paper remained exposed to the least
refrangible rays.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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