The Nature of Animal LightHarvey, E. Newton (Edmund Newton)
Science
The Nature of Animal Light
Harvey, E. Newton (Edmund Newton)
Phosphorescence
THERMOLUMINESCENCE.--Some substances begin to emit light of shorter
wave-length than red, well below 525°. This is thermoluminescence.
Diamond, marble, and fluorite are examples. Only certain varieties of
fluorite show the phenomenon well. A crystal of one of these varieties
heated in the bunsen flame on an iron spoon will give off a white light
long before any trace of redness appears in the iron. Other crystals may
luminesce in hot water. In all, this luminescence is dependent on a
previous illumination or radiation of the crystal. If kept in the dark
for a long time no trace of light appears when fluorite is placed at a
temperature of 100°, but after a short exposure to the light of an
incandescent bulb, although no light can be observed in the fluorite at
room temperature, quite a bright glow appears at 100°. Calcium, barium,
strontium, magnesium and other sulphates containing traces of manganese
sulphate, show a similar phenomenon after exposure to cathode rays
(Wiedemann and Schmidt, 1895 b). They emit light during bombardment, but
this soon ceases when the rays are cut off. If the sulphates are now
heated they give off light, red in the case of MgSO_{4} + MnSO_{4},
green in the case of CaSO_{4} + MnSO_{4}. The power to emit light on
heating may be retained for months after the exposure to cathode rays.
The emission of light by bodies after previous illumination or radiation
is called _phosphorescence_ and will be considered below. It would seem
that the cases of thermoluminescence with which we are acquainted are
really cases of phosphorescence intensified by rise of temperature. The
spectrum of thermoluminescent bodies, also, is similar to that of
phosphorescent ones. (See Fig. 3.) However, not all phosphorescent
materials are also thermoluminescent. The production of light by animals
is quite another phenomenon from thermoluminescence.
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