Some of the phenomena of radiation can be explained only by the emission theory, and others by the undulatory theory of light. All these difficulties would be solved if we admitted the hypothesis that radiating bodies project electrons, which produce in the ether periodic waves similar to those formed in our gelatine films by the molecules of diffusion.
These diffusion films are of the greatest possible service in the practical teaching of optics. They place before the eye of the student a working model as it were of the undulations of light. When projected on the screen, they give excellent pictures of the phenomena of refraction, diffraction, and interference, and the simultaneous propagation of undulation of different wave-lengths, and they show in a visible manner the changes of wave-length in media of different densities.
Diffusion waves differ greatly in length, varying from several millimetres to 2 μ. Many are even shorter than this, too short to be separately distinguished even under the highest power of the microscope, when they give the effect of moiré or mother-of-pearl.
It is easy to construct a spectroscopic grating in this way with fine lines whose distance apart is of the order of a micron, separated by clear spaces. Every physical laboratory may thus produce its own spectroscopic gratings, rectilinear, circular, or of any desired form.
The most beautiful colour effects may be produced with these diffusion gratings, as we have shown at the Congress of Rheims in 1907. We have a considerable collection of these diffusion gratings, some with very fine lines, giving a very extended spectrum, and others with coarser striations which give a large number of small spectra.
This study of periodic precipitates is of the highest interest when we come to investigate the production of colour in natural objects, such as the wings of insects or the plumage of
birds. Many tissues have this lined or striated structure and exhibit interference colours like those of the periodic precipitates, their structure showing alternate transparent and opaque lines, whose width is of the order of a micron. This is the structure of muscle, and to this striated surface is also attributable many of the most beautiful colours of nature, the gleam of tendon and aponeurosis, the fire of scarab and beetle, the colours of the peacock, and the iridescence of the mollusc and the pearl. The study of liquid diffusion has given us an idea of the physical mechanism by which these striated tissues are produced, a mechanism which up to the present time has not been even suspected. Our experiments show how readily such striped or ruled structures may be produced in a colloidal solution by the simple diffusion of salts such as are found in every living organism.
To make a spectroscopic grating by diffusion we proceed as follows. We take 5 c.c. of a 10 per cent. solution of gelatine, and add to it one drop of a concentrated solution
of calcium nitrate. We spread the gelatine evenly over a plain glass lantern slide and allow it to set. After it is set, but before it dries, we place in the centre of the slide a drop of concentrated solution containing two parts of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) to one of dibasic sodium phosphate (Na2HPO4). Tribasic sodium phosphate alone without the addition of the carbonate will also give good results. If the phosphate solution is placed on the gelatine in the form of a drop, we obtain circular periodic precipitates. If it is desired to make a rectilineal grating, we deposit the phosphate solution on the gelatine in a straight line by means of two parallel glass plates. In this way we may obtain lines of periodic precipitation to the number of 500 to 1000 per millimetre, forming gratings which produce most beautiful spectra.