The Boy's Playbook of Science / Including the Various Manipulations and Arrangements of Chemical and Philosophical Apparatus Required for the Successful Performance of Scientific Experiments in Illustration of the Elementary Branches of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy

by John Henry Pepper

Fig. 340.

a a a. Polarized light. b b. A lens of short focus, transmitting a cone of light with an angle of divergence for its rays, c c, of 45°. d d. The crystal of topaz, Iceland spar, or nitre. e e. The slice of blue tourmaline for analysing.

Finally, the question of utility (the cui bono) may be considered in answer to the query, What is the use of polarized light?

The value to scientific men of a knowledge of the nature of this modification of common light cannot be overrated. It has given the philosopher a new kind of test, by which he discovers the structure of things that would otherwise be perfectly unknown; it has given the astronomer increased data for the exercise of his reasoning powers; whilst to the microscopist the beauty of objects displayed by polarized light has long been a theme of admiration and delight, and has served as a guide for the identification of certain varieties of any given substance, such as starch.

A tube provided with a polarizer of tourmaline, or a single-image Nicol prism, is invaluable to the look-out at the mast-head in cases where vessels are navigating either inland or sea water, where the presence of hidden rocks is suspected, because the polarizer rejects all the glare of light arising from unequal reflection at the surface of water, and enables the observer to gaze into the depths of the sea and to examine the rocks, which can only be perfectly visible by the refracted light coming from their surfaces through the water.

Professor Wheatstone has invented an ingenious polarizing clock for showing the hour of the day by the polarizing power of the atmosphere. Birt, Powell, and Leeson have each invented instruments for examining the circular polarization of fluids, by which a more intimate knowledge of the relative values of saccharine solutions may be obtained, besides unfolding other truths important to investigators in this branch of science.

And last, but not least, it was with the assistance of polarized light that Dr. Faraday established the relation that exists between light and magnetism, and through the latter, with the force of electricity; and the next figure indicates the necessary apparatus required to repeat this highly important physical truth—viz., the deviation of the plane of polarization of light by the influence of the magnetic force from a powerful electro-magnet. (Fig. 341.)

Fig. 341.