Scientific American Supplement, No. 595, May 28, 1887Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 595, May 28, 1887
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Next notice in the diagram that the top of the curve gradually inclines
to go to the red end of the spectrum as you get the light transmitted
through more and more air, and I should like to show you that this is the
case in a laboratory experiment. Taking a slide with a wide and long slot
in it, a portion is occupied by a right angled prism, one of the angles
of 45° being toward the center of the slot. By sliding this prism in
front of the spectrum I can deflect outward any portion of the spectrum I
like, and by a mirror can reflect it through a second lens, forming a
patch of light on the screen overlapping the patch of light formed by the
undeflected rays. If the two patches be exactly equal, white light is
formed. Now, by placing a rod as before in front of the patch, I have two
colored stripes in a white field, and though the background remains of
the same intensity of white, the intensities of the two stripes can be
altered by moving the right angled prism through the spectrum. The two
stripes are now apparently equally luminous, and I see the point of
equality is where the edge of the right angled prism is in the green.
Placing a narrow cell filled with our turbid medium in front of the slit,
I find that the equality is disturbed, and I have to allow more of the
yellow to come into the patch formed by the blue end of the spectrum, and
consequently less of it in the red end. I again establish equality.
Placing a thicker cell in front, equality is again disturbed, and I have
to have less yellow still in the red half, and more in the blue half. I
now remove the cell, and the inequality of luminosity is still more
glaring. This shows, then, that the rays of maximum luminosity must
travel toward the red as the thickness of the turbid medium is increased.
The observations at 8,000 feet, here recorded, were taken on September
15, at noon, and of course in latitude 46° the sun could not be overhead,
but had to traverse what would be almost exactly equivalent to the
atmosphere at sea level. It is much nearer the calculated intensity for
no atmosphere intervening than it is for one atmosphere. The explanation
of this is easy. The air is denser at sea level than at 8,000 feet up,
and the lower stratum is more likely to hold small water particles or
dust in suspension than is the higher.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--PROPORTIONS OF TRANSMITTED COLORS.]
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