Scientific American Supplement, No. 467, December 13, 1884 — John Shaqi
Scientific American Supplement, No. 467, December 13, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 467, December 13, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
With Iceland spar, one unpolarized ray of light divides on entering
it into two rays of polarized light, by reason of its power of double
refraction, and the vibrations are perpendicular to one another in the
two emerging rays. Light is always polarized when it is reflected from
a plate of unsilvered glass, or water, at a certain definite angle of
fifty-six degrees for glass, fifty-two degrees for water, the angle
being reckoned in each case from a perpendicular to the surface. The
angle for water is the angle whose tangent is 1.4. I wish you to look
at the polarization with your own eyes. Light from glass at fifty
six degrees and from water at fifty-two degrees goes away vibrating
perpendicularly to the plane of incidence and plane of reflection.
We can distinguish it without the aid of an instrument. There is a
phenomenon well known in physical optics as "Haidinger's brushes." The
discoverer is well known in Philadelphia as a mineralogist, and the
phenomenon I speak of goes by his name. Look at the sky in a direction
of ninety degrees from the sun, and you will see a yellow and blue
cross, with the yellow toward the sun, and from the sun, spreading
out like two foxes' tails with blue between, and then two red brushes
in the space at right angles to the blue. If you do not see it, it is
because your eyes are not sensitive enough, but a little training will
give them the needed sensitiveness.
If you cannot see it in this way, try another method. Look into a pail
of water with a black bottom; or take a clear glass dish of water, rest
it on a black cloth and look down at the surface of the water on a
day with a white cloudy sky (if there is such a thing ever to be seen
in Philadelphia). You will see the white sky reflected in the basin
of water at an angle of about fifty degrees. Look at it with the head
tipped to one side, and then again with the head tipped to the other
side, keeping your eyes on the water, and you will see Haidinger's
brushes. Do not do it fast, or you will make yourself giddy. The
explanation of this is the refreshing of the sensibility of the retina.
The Haidinger's brush is always there, but you do not see it because
your eye is not sensitive enough. After once seeing it, you always see
it; it does not thrust itself inconveniently before you when you do not
want to see it. You can readily see it in a piece of glass with dark
cloth below it, or in a basin of water.
I am going to conclude by telling you how we know the wave lengths
of light and how we know the frequency of the vibrations. We shall
actually make a measurement of the wave length of the yellow light. I
am going to show you the diffraction spectrum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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