important connexion with the phenomenon of the aberration
of light, and has been treated with masterly skill by Joseph
Larmor and others (see Aether). The relation of the earth’s
motion to the intensities of terrestrial sources of light was
investigated theoretically by Fizeau, but no experimental inquiry
was made until 1903, when Nordmeyer obtained negative results,
which were confirmed by the theoretical investigations of A. A.
Bucherer and H. A. Lorentz.
Experimental photometry has been greatly developed since the pioneer work of Bouguer and Lambert and the subsequent introduction of the photometers of Ritchie, Rumford, Bunsen and Wheatstone, followed by Swan’s in 1859, and O. R. Lummer and E. Brodhun’s instrument (essentially the same as Swan’s) in 1889. This expansion may largely be attributed to the increase in the number of artificial illuminants—especially the many types of filament- and arc-electric lights, and the incandescent gas light. Colour photometry has also been notably developed, especially since the enunciation of the “Purkinje phenomenon” in 1825. Sir William Abney has contributed much to this subject, and A. M. Meyer has designed a photometer in which advantage is taken of the phenomenon of contrast colours. “Flicker photometry” may be dated from O. N. Rood’s investigations in 1893, and the same principle has been applied by Haycraft and Whitman. These questions—colour and flicker photometry—have important affinities to colour perception and the persistence of vision (see Vision). The spectrophotometer, devised by De Witt Bristol Brace in 1899, which permits the comparison of similarly coloured portions of the spectra from two different sources, has done much valuable work in the determination of absorptive powers and extinction coefficients. Much attention has also been given to the preparation of a standard of intensity, and many different sources have been introduced (see Photometry). Stellar photometry, which was first investigated instrumentally with success by Sir John Herschel, was greatly improved by the introduction of Zöllner’s photometer, E. C. Pickering’s meridian photometer and C. Pritchard’s wedge photometer. Other methods of research in this field are by photography—photographic photometry—and radiometric method (see Photometry, Celestial).
The earlier methods for the experimental determination of refractive indices by measuring the deviation through a solid prism of the substance in question or, in the case of liquids, through a hollow prism containing the liquid, have been replaced in most accurate work by other methods. The method of total reflection, due originally to Wollaston, has been put into a very convenient form, applicable to both solids and liquids, in the Pulfrich refractometer (see Refraction). Still more accurate methods, based on interference phenomena, have been devised. Jamin’s interference refractometer is one of the earlier forms of such apparatus; and Michelson’s interferometer is one of the best of later types (see Interference). The variation of refractive index with density has been the subject of much experimental and theoretical inquiry. The empirical rule of Gladstone and Dale was often at variance with experiment, and the mathematical investigations of H. A. Lorentz of Leiden and L. Lorenz of Copenhagen on the electromagnetic theory led to a more consistent formula. The experimental work has been chiefly associated with the names of H. H. Landolt and J. W. Brühl, whose results, in addition to verifying the Lorenz-Lorentz formula, have established that this function of the refractive index and density is a colligative property of the molecule, i.e. it is calculable additively from the values of this function for the component atoms, allowance being made for the mode in which they are mutually combined (see Chemistry, Physical). The preparation of lenses, in which the refractive index decreases with the distance from the axis, by K. F. J. Exner, H. F. L. Matthiessen and Schott, and the curious results of refraction by non-homogeneous media, as realized by R. Wood may be mentioned (see Mirage).
The spectrum of white light produced by prismatic refraction has engaged many investigators. The infra-red or heat waves were discovered by Sir William Herschel, and experiments on the actinic effects of the different parts of the spectrum on silver salts by Scheele, Senebier, Ritter, Seebeck and others, proved the increased activity as one passed from the red to the violet and the ultra-violet. Wollaston also made many investigations in this field, noticing the dark lines—the “Fraunhofer lines”—which cross the solar spectrum, which were further discussed by Brewster and Fraunhofer, who thereby laid the foundations of modern spectroscopy. Mention may also be made of the investigations of Lord Rayleigh and Arthur Schuster on the resolving power of prisms (see Diffraction), and also of the modern view of the function of the prism in analysing white light. The infra-red and ultra-violet rays are of especial interest since, although not affecting vision after the manner of ordinary light, they possess very remarkable properties. Theoretical investigation on the undulatory theory of the law of reflection shows that a surface, too rough to give any trace of regular reflection with ordinary light, may regularly reflect the long waves, a phenomenon experimentally realized by Lord Rayleigh. Long waves—the so-called “residual rays” or “Rest-strahlen”—have also been isolated by repeated reflections from quartz surfaces of the light from zirconia raised to incandescence by the oxyhydrogen flame (E. F. Nichols and H. Rubens); far longer waves were isolated by similar reflections from fluorite (56 µ) and sylvite (61 µ) surfaces in 1899 by Rubens and E. Aschkinass. The short waves—ultra-violet rays—have also been studied, the researches of E. F. Nichols on the transparency of quartz to these rays, which are especially present in the radiations of the mercury arc, having led to the introduction of lamps made of fused quartz, thus permitting the convenient study of these rays, which, it is to be noted, are absorbed by ordinary clear glass. Recent researches at the works of Schott and Genossen, Jena, however, have resulted in the production of a glass transparent to the ultra-violet.
Dispersion, i.e. that property of a substance which consists in having a different refractive index for rays of different wave-lengths, was first studied in the form known as “ordinary dispersion” in which the refrangibility of the ray increased with the wave-length. Cases had been observed by Fox Talbot, Le Roux, and especially by Christiansen (1870) and A. Kundt (1871–1872) where this normal rule did not hold; to such phenomena the name “anomalous dispersion” was given, but really there is nothing anomalous about it at all, ordinary dispersion being merely a particular case of the general phenomenon. The Cauchy formula, which was founded on the elastic-solid theory, did not agree with the experimental facts, and the germs of the modern theory, as was pointed out by Lord Rayleigh in 1900, were embodied in a question proposed by Clerk Maxwell for the Mathematical Tripos examination for 1869. The principle, which occurred simultaneously to W. Sellmeier (who is regarded as the founder of the modern theory) and had been employed about 1850 by Sir G. G. Stokes to explain absorption lines, involves an action between the aether and the molecules of the dispersing substance. The mathematical investigation is associated with the names of Sellmeier, Hermann Helmholtz, Eduard Ketteler, P. Drude, H. A. Lorentz and Lord Rayleigh, and the experimental side with many observers—F. Paschen, Rubens and others; absorbing media have been investigated by A. W. Pflüger, a great many aniline dyes by K. Stöckl, and sodium vapour by R. W. Wood. Mention may also be made of the beautiful experiments of Christiansen (1884) and Lord Rayleigh on the colours transmitted by white powders suspended in liquids of the same refractive index. If, for instance, benzol be gradually added to finely powdered quartz, a succession of beautiful colours—red, yellow, green and finally blue—is transmitted, or, under certain conditions, the colours may appear at once, causing the mixture to flash like a fiery opal. Absorption, too, has received much attention; the theory has been especially elaborated by M. Planck, and the experimental investigation has been prosecuted from the purely physical standpoint, and also from the standpoint of the physical chemist, with a view to correlating absorption with constitution.
Interference phenomena have been assiduously studied. The
