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the celestial regions are filled with an extremely rare, imponderable, and highly elastic medium or ether, whose particles are capable of receiving the vibrations communicated to them by self-luminous bodies, and of transmitting them to the optic nerves, so as to produce the sensation of light. The acceleration in the mean motion of Encke's comet renders the existence of such a medium almost certain. It is clear that, in this hypothesis, the alternate stripes of light and darkness are entirely the effect of the interference of the undulations; for, by actual measurement, the length of a wave of the mean red rays of the solar spectrum is equal to the 0.0000258th part of an inch; consequently, when the elevation of the waves combine, they produce double the intensity of light that each would do singly; and when half a wave combines with a whole,—that is, when the hollow of one wave is filled up by the elevation of another, darkness is the result. At intermediate points between these extremes, the intensity of the light corresponds to intermediate differences in the lengths of the rays.

The theory of interferences is a particular case of the general mechanical law of the superposition of small motions; whence it appears that the disturbance of a particle of an elastic medium, produced by two coexistent undulations, is the

sum of the disturbances which each undulation would produce separately; consequently the particle will move in the diagonal of a parallelogram, whose sides are the two undulations. If, therefore, the two undulations agree in direction, or nearly so, the resulting motion will be very nearly equal to their sum, and in the same direction: if they nearly oppose one another, the resulting motion will be nearly equal to their difference; and if the undulations be equal and opposite, the resultant will be zero, and the particle will remain at rest.

The preceding experiments, and the inferences. deduced from them, which have led to the establishment of the doctrine of the undulations of light, are the most splendid memorials of our illustrious countryman Dr. Thomas Young, though Huygens was the first to originate the idea.

It is supposed that the particles of luminous bodies are in a state of perpetual agitation, and that they possess the property of exciting regular vibrations in the ethereal medium, corresponding to the vibrations of their own molecules; and that, on account of its elastic nature, one particle of the ether, when set in motion, communicates its vibrations to those adjacent, which in succession transmit them to those farther off, so that the primitive impulse is transferred from particle to

particle, and the undulating motion darts through ether like a wave in water. Although the progressive motion of light is known by experience to be uniform, and in a straight line, the vibrations of the particles are always at right angles to the direction of the ray. The propagation of light is like the spreading of waves in water; but if one ray alone be considered, its motion may be conceived by supposing a rope of indefinite length stretched horizontally, one end of which is held in the hand. If it be agitated to and fro at regular intervals, with a motion perpendicular to its length, a series of similar and equal tremors or waves will be propagated along it; and if the regular impulses be given in a variety of planes, as up and down, from right to left, and also in oblique directions, the successive undulations will take place in every possible plane. An analogous motion in the ether, when communicated to the optic nerves, would produce the sensation of common light. It is evident that the waves which flow from end to end of the cord in a serpentine form are altogether different from the perpendicular vibratory motion of each particle of the rope, which never deviates far from a state of rest. So in ether each particle vibrates perpendicularly to the direction of the ray; but these vibrations are totally different from, and independent of, the

undulations which are transmitted through it, in the same manner as the vibrations of each particular ear of corn are independent of the waves that rush from end to end of a harvest-field when agitated by the wind.

The intensity of light depends upon the amplitude or extent of the vibrations of the particles of ether; while its colour depends upon their frequency. The time of the vibration of a particle of ether is, by theory, as the length of a wave directly, and inversely as its velocity. Now, as the velocity of light is known to be 192000 miles in a second, if the lengths of the waves of the different coloured rays could be measured, the number of vibrations in a second corresponding to each could be computed; but that has been accomplished as follows:-All transparent substances of a certain thickness, with parallel surfaces, reflect and transmit white light, but if they be extremely thin, both the reflected and transmitted light is coloured. The vivid hues on soapbubbles, the iridescent colours produced by heat on polished steel and copper, the fringes of colour between the lamina of Iceland spar and sulphate of lime, all consist of a succession of hues disposed in the same order, totally independent of the colour of the substance, and determined solely by its greater or less thickness,-a circumstance

which affords the means of ascertaining the length of the waves of each coloured ray, and the frequency of the vibrations of the particles producing them. If a plate of glass be laid upon a lens of almost imperceptible curvature, before an open window, when they are pressed together a black spot will be seen in the point of contact, surrounded by seven rings of vivid colours, all differing from one another. In the first ring, estimated from the black spot, the colours succeed each other in the following order;-black, very faint blue, brilliant white, yellow, orange, and red. They are quite different in the other rings, and in the seventh the only colours are pale bluish-green and very pale pink. That these rings are formed between the two surfaces in apparent contact may be proved by laying a prism on the lens, instead of the plate of glass, and viewing the rings through the inclined side of it that is next to the eye, which arrangement prevents the light reflected from the upper surface mixing with that from the surfaces in contact, so that the intervals between the rings appear perfectly black,-one of the strongest circumstances in favour of the undulatory theory; for, although the phenomena of the rings can be explained by either hypothesis, there is this material difference, that, according to the undulatory theory, the intervals between the rings ought to be absolutely

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