Polarized light is light which has been subjected to compound refraction, and which, after polarization, exhibits a new series of phenomena, differing materially from those that pertain to the primary conditions of light.
550. What are the chief deductions from the phenomena observed under the polarization of light?
The polarization of light appears to confirm in a high degree the vibratory theory of light; and to show that the vibrations of light have two planes or directions of motion. The mast of a ship, for instance, has two motions: it progresses vertically as the ship is impelled forward, and it rolls laterally through the motion of the billows.
Something like this occurs in the vibrations of light, only the vertical vibration is the condition of one ray, and the lateral vibration is the condition of another ray, and the vibrations of these two rays intersect each other in the solar ray. When these vibrations occur together, the ray has certain properties and powers. But by polarization the rays may be separated, and the result is two distinct rays, having different vibrations.
It then appears that various bodies are transparent to these polarized rays only in certain directions. And this fact is supposed to show that bodies are made up of their atoms arranged in certain planes, through or between which the lateral or the vertical waves of light, together or singly, can or cannot pass; and that the transparency or the opacity of a body is determined by the relation of its atomic planes to the planes of the vibrations of light.
Ordinary light, passing through transparent media, produces no very remarkable effect in its course; but polarized light appears to illuminate every atom of the permeated substance, and by surrounding it with a prismatic clothing, to afford an illustration of its molecular arrangement.
"A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight."—John ix.