Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T22:41:42.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ART. 127 - On an Improved Apparatus for Christiansen's Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Get access

Summary

The very beautiful experiment in question, described by C. Christiansen in Wiedemann's Annalen for November 1884, consists in immersing glass-power in a mixture of benzole and bisulphide of carbon of such proportions that for one part of the spectrum the indices of the solid and of the fluid are the same. Being interested in this subject from having employed the same principle for a direct-vision spectroscope (Phil. Mag. January 1880, p. 53) [vol. I. p. 456], I have repeated Christiansen's experiment in a somewhat improved form, which it may be worth while briefly to describe, as the matter is one of great optical interest.

I must premise that the beauty of the effect depends upon the correspondence of index being limited to one part of the spectrum. Rays lying within a very narrow range of refrangibility traverse the mixture freely, but the neighbouring rays are scattered laterally, much as in passing ground glass. Two complementary colours are therefore exhibited, one by direct, and the other by oblique, light. In order to see these to advantage, there should not be much diffused illumination; otherwise the directly transmitted monochromatic light is liable to be greatly diluted. The prettiest colours are obtained when the undisturbed rays are from the green; but the greatest general transparency corresponds to a lower point in the spectrum.

Type
Chapter
Information
Scientific Papers , pp. 433 - 435
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1900

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×