Page images
PDF
EPUB

which consists of all the colours, is consequently a mixture of waves of all lengths between the limits of the extreme red and violet. The determination of these minute portions of time and space, both of which have a real existence, being the actual results of measurement, do as much honour to the genius of Newton as that of the law of gravitation.

The number of advancing waves of light in an inch is known to be from 37,600 to 59,880, and the number of lateral vibrations is from 458 to 727 billions in a second, but the extent of these lateral vibrations of the particles of the ethereal medium is not known, though both their extent and velocity are probably very small compared with the length of the advancing waves and the velocity of propagation. Colour is identified with the number of vibrations; but whether reflection, refraction, absorption, &c., have any relations to the lateral vibrations, or whether they are dependent in part upon some physical action of the ethereal medium unknown and unsuspected, are points as yet undetermined. To ascertain these circumstances, Dr. Faraday instituted a series of the most refined experiments upon the relation of the minute particles of metals to the vibrations of light.

Gold acts powerfully on light, and possesses a real transparency, transmitting green rays when very thin; and being capable of extreme division by solvents without losing its metallic character, its particles transmit rays of various colours according to their size; those that transmit the rose-colour in Bohemian glass are of inconceivable minuteness. The progressive waves of the ether are so long compared with the dimensions of the molecules to which gold can be reduced, that it seemed probable to Dr. Faraday when the latter were placed in a sunbeam that some effective relation might be discovered between them and the smaller vibrations of the ethereal medium; in which case, if reflection, refraction, &c., depended upon such relations, there was reason to expect that these functions would change sensibly by the substitution of different sized particles of the gold for one another. At one time Dr. Faraday hoped he had changed one colour into another by means of gold, which would have been equivalent to a change in the number of vibrations; but although he has not yet confirmed that result, his researches are of the greatest interest.*

* Bakerian Lecture, by Michael Faraday, Esq. Phil. Trans. 1857.

The phenomenon of the coloured rings takes place in vacuo as well as in air, which proves that it is the distance between the lenses alone, and not the air, which produces the colours. However, if water or oil be put between them, the rings contract, but no other change ensues; and Newton found that the thickness of different media at which a given tint is seen is in the inverse ratio of their refractive indices, so that the thickness of laminæ which could not otherwise be measured may be known by their colour; and, as the position of the colours in the rings is invariable, they form a fixed standard of comparison, well known as Newton's scale of colours; each tint being estimated according to the ring to which it belongs from the central spot inclusively. Not only the periodical colours which have been described, but the colours seen in thick plates of transparent substances, the variable hues of feathers, of insects' wings, mother-of-pearl, and of striated substances, all depend upon the same principle. To these may be added the coloured fringes surrounding the shadows of all bodies held in an extremely small beam of light, and the coloured rings surrounding the small beam itself when received

on a screen.

When a very slender sunbeam, passing through a small pinhole into a dark room, is received on a white screen, or plate of ground-glass, at the distance of a little more than six feet, the spot of light on the screen is larger than the pin-hole: and, instead of being bounded by shadow, it is surrounded by a series of coloured rings separated by obscure intervals. The rings are more distinct in proportion to the smallness of the beam (N. 201). When the light is white there are seven rings, which dilate or contract with the distance of the screen from the hole. As the distance of the screen diminishes, the white central spot contracts to a point and vanishes; and, on approaching still nearer, the rings gradually close in upon it, so that the centre assumes successively the most intense and vivid hues. When the light is homogeneous-red, for example-the rings are alternately red and black, and more numerous; and their breadth varies with the colour, being broadest in red light and narrowest in violet. The tints of the coloured fringes from white light, and their obliteration after the seventh ring, arise from the superposition of the different sets of fringes of all the coloured rays. The shadows of objects are also bordered by coloured fringes when held in this

slender beam of light. If the edge of a knife or hair, for example, be held in it, the rays, instead of proceeding in straight lines past its edge, are bent when quite close to it, and proceed from thence to the screen in curved lines called hyperbolas; so that the shadow of the object is enlarged, and, instead of being at once bounded by light, is surrounded or edged with coloured fringes alternating with black bands, which are more distinct the smaller the pin-hole (N. 202). The fringes are altogether independent of the form or density of the object, being the same when it is round or pointed, when of glass or platinum. When the rays which form the fringes arrive at the screen, they are of different lengths, in consequence of the curved path they follow after passing the edge of the object. The waves are therefore in different phases or states of vibration, and either conspire to form coloured fringes or destroy one another in the obscure intervals. The coloured fringes bordering the shadows of objects were first described by Grimaldi in 1665; but, besides these, he noticed that there are others within the shadows of slender bodies exposed to a small sunbeam, a phenomenon which has already been mentioned to have afforded Dr. Young the means of proving, beyond all controversy, that coloured rings are produced by the interference of light.

It may be concluded that material substances derive their colours from two different causes: some from the law of interference, such as iridescent metals, peacocks' feathers, &c.; others from the unequal absorption of the rays of white light, such as vermilion, ultramarine, blue, or green cloth, flowers, and the greater number of coloured bodies. The latter phenomena have been considered extremely difficult to reconcile with the undulatory theory of light, and much discussion has arisen as to what becomes of the absorbed rays. But that embarrassing question has been ably answered by Sir John Herschel in a most profound paper on the Absorption of Light by coloured Media, and cannot be better given than in his own words. It must, however, be premised, that, as all transparent bodies are traversed by light, they are presumed to be permeable to the ether. He says,—" Now, as regards only the general fact of the obstruction and ultimate extinction of light in its passage through gross media, if we compare the corpuscular and undulatory theories, we shall find that the former appeals to our ignorance, the latter

to our knowledge, for its explanation of the absorptive phenomena. In attempting to explain the extinction of light on the corpuscular doctrine, we have to account for the light so extinguished as a material body, which we must not suppose annihilated. It may, however, be transformed; and among the imponderable agents, heat, electricity, &c., it may be that we are to search for the light which has become thus comparatively stagnant. The heating power of the solar rays gives a primá facie plausibility to the idea of the transformation of light into heat by absorption. But, when we come to examine the matter more nearly, we find it encumbered on all sides with difficulties. How is it, for instance, that the most luminous rays are not the most calorific, but that, on the contrary, the calorific energy accompanies, in its greatest intensity, rays which possess comparatively feeble illuminating powers? These and other questions of a similar nature may perhaps admit of answer in a more advanced state of our knowledge; but at present there is none obvious. It is not without reason, therefore, that the question, 'What becomes of light?' which appears to have been agitated among the photologists of the last century, has been regarded as one of considerable importance as well as obscurity by the corpuscular philosophers. On the other hand, the answer to this question, afforded by the undulatory theory of light, is simple and distinct. The question, What becomes of light?' merges in the more general one, 'What becomes of motion ?' And the answer, on dynamical principles, is, that it continues for ever. No motion is, strietly speaking, annihilated; but it may be divided, and the divided parts made to oppose and in effect destroy one another. A body struck, however perfectly elastic, vibrates for a time, and then appears to sink into its original repose. But this apparent rest (even abstracting from the inquiry that part of the motion which may be conveyed away by the ambient air) is nothing else than a state of subdivided and mutually destroying motion, in which every molecule continues to be agitated by an indefinite multitude of internally reflected waves, propagated through it in every possible direction, from every point in its surface on which they successively impinge. The superposition of such waves will, it is easily seen, at length operate their mutual destruction, which will be the more complete the more irregular the figure of the body, and the greater

[ocr errors]

the number of internal reflections." Thus Sir John Herschel, by referring the absorption of light to the subdivision and mutual destruction of the vibrations of ether in the interior of bodies, brings another class of phenomena under the laws of the undulatory theory.

According to Mr. Rankin's hypothesis of Molecular Vortices* the absorption of light and radiant heat consists in the transference of motion from the molecules to their atmospheres, and conversely the emission of light and radiant heat is the transmission of motion from the atmospheres to the molecules. The great velocity of light and heat is a natural consequence of this hypothesis, according to which the vibratory masses must be extremely small compared with the forces exerted by them.

The ethereal medium pervading space is supposed to penetrate all material substances, occupying the interstices between their molecules; but in the interior of refracting media it exists in a state of less elasticity compared with its density in vacuo; and, the more refractive the medium, the less the elasticity of the ether within it. Hence the waves of light are transmitted with less velocity in such media as glass and water than in the external ether. As soon as a ray of light reaches the surface of a diaphanous reflecting substance, for example a plate of glass, it communicates its undulations to the ether next in contact with the surface, which thus becomes a new centre of motion, and two hemispherical waves are propagated from each point of this surface; one of which proceeds forward into the interior of the glass, with a less velocity than the incident waves; and the other is transmitted back into the air, with a velocity equal to that with which it came (N. 203). Thus, when refracted, the light moves with a different velocity without and within the glass; when reflected, the ray comes and goes with the same velocity. The particles of ether without the glass, which communicate their motions to the particles of the dense and less elastic ether within it, are analogous to small elastic balls striking large ones; for some of the motion will be communicated to the large balls, and the small ones will be reflected. The first would cause the refracted wave, and the last the reflected. Conversely, when the light passes from glass to air, the action is similar to large balls striking small ones. The small balls * See page 104.

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »