Charles Everitt, Hendrik A. Lorentz and Simon Newcomb

“ Theory of Huygens.—Huygens was the first to show that the explanation of optical phenomena may be made to depend on the wave-surface, not only in isotropic bodies, in which it has a spherical form, but also in crystals, for one of which (Iceland spar) he deduced the form of the surface from the observed double refraction. In his argument Huygens availed himself of the following principle that is justly named after him: Any point that is reached by a wave of light becomes a new centre of radiation from which the disturbance is propagated towards all sides. ”

“ The analysis of white light into the spectrum colours, and the re-formation of the original light by transmitting the spectrum through a reversed prism, proved, to the satisfaction of Newton and subsequent physicists until late in the 19th century, that the various coloured rays were present in white light, and that the action of the prism was merely to sort out the rays. This view, which suffices for the explanation of most phenomena, has now been given up, and the modern view is that the prism or grating really does manufacture the colours, as was held previously to Newton. ”

“ The simplest subjective phenomena of light are Colour and intensity, the measurement of the latter being named Photometry. When light falls on a medium, it may be returned by Reflection or it may suffer Absorption; or it may be transmitted and undergo Refraction, and, if the light be composite, Dispersion; or, as in the case of oil films on water, brilliant colours are seen, an effect which is due to Interference. ”

“ Polarization phenomena may, with great justification, be regarded as the most engrossing subject of optical research during the 19th century; the assiduity with which it was cultivated in the opening decades of that century received a great stimulus when James Nicol devised in 1828 the famous “Nicol prism,” which greatly facilitated the determination of the plane of vibration of polarized light, and the facts that light is polarized by reflection, repeated refractions, double refraction and by diffraction also contributed to the interest which the subject excited. ”

“ The aversion of the Greek thinkers to detailed experimental inquiry stultified the progress of the science; instead of acquiring facts necessary for formulating scientific laws and correcting hypotheses, the Greeks devoted their intellectual energies to philosophizing on the nature of light itself. In their search for a theory the Greeks were mainly concerned with vision—in other words, they sought to determine how an object was seen, and to what its colour was due. Emission theories, involving the conception that light was a stream of concrete particles, were formulated. ”

“ Descartes attacked Fermat’s opinions respecting light, but Leibnitz zealously defended them; and Huygens was led, by reasonings of a very different kind, to adopt Fermat’s conclusions of a velocity inversely as the index, and of a minimum time of propagation of light, in passing from one given point to another through an ordinary refracting plane. Newton, however, by his theory of emission and attraction, was led to conclude that the velocity of light was directly, not inversely, as the index, and that it was increased instead of being diminished on entering a denser medium ”

“ The invention of the magic lantern has been ascribed to Bacon, and his statements concerning spectacles, the telescope, and the microscope, if not based on an experimental realization of these instruments, must be regarded as masterly conceptions of the applications of lenses. As to the nature of light, Bacon adhered to the theory that objects are rendered visible by emanations from the eye.
The history of science, and more particularly the history of inventions, constantly confronts us with the problem presented by such writings as Friar Bacon’s. ”

“ In his metaphysical speculations on the system of nature, Descartes formulated a theory of light at variance with the generally accepted emission theory and showing some resemblance to the earlier views of Aristotle, and, in a smaller measure, to the modern undulatory theory. He imagined light to be a pressure transmitted by an infinitely elastic medium which pervades space, and colour to be due to rotatory motions of the particles of this medium. ”

“ In the theory of double refraction the difficulties are no less serious. As a general rule there are in an anisotropic elastic solid three possible directions of vibration (§ 6) , at right angles to each other, for a given direction of the waves, but none of these lies in the wave-front. In order to make two of them do so and to find Fresnel’s form for the wave-surface, new hypotheses are required. On Fresnel’s assumption it is even necessary, as was observed by Green, to suppose that in the absence of all vibrations there is already a certain state of pressure in the medium. ”

“ When the speed of light is measured the result is not the wave-speed as above defined, but something less, because the result depends on the time of the group passing through the medium. This lower speed is called the group-velocity of light. In a vacuum there is no dying out of the waves, so that the group-speed and the wave-speed are identical. From Michelson’s experiments it would follow that the retardation was about 1/14 of the whole speed. ”

“ The authority of the Platonists was strong enough to overcome Aristotle’s theory that light was an activity (ἐνέργεια) of a medium which he termed the pellucid (διαφανές) ; about two thousand years later Newton’s exposition of his corpuscular theory overcame the undulatory hypotheses of Descartes and Huygens; and it was only after the acquisition of new experimental facts that the labours of Thomas Young and Augustin Fresnel indubitably established the wave-theory. ”

“ The research-field of optics includes the investigation of the rays which we have just enumerated. A delimitation may then be made, inasmuch as luminous sources yield no other radiations, and also since the next series of waves, the electromagnetic waves, have a minimum wave-length of 6 mm.
§ 2. The commonest subjective phenomena of light are colour and visibility, i.e. why are some bodies visible and others not, or, in other words, what is the physical significance of the words “transparency,” “colour” and “visibility.” ”

“ If the mirror is in rapid rotation the ray reflected from it will strike the distant mirror as a series of flashes, each formed by the light reflected when the mirror was in the position AB. If the speed of rotation is uniform, the reflected rays from the successive flashes while the mirror is in the dotted position will thus all follow the same direction ME after their second reflection from the mirror. If the motion is sufficiently rapid an eye observing the reflected ray will see the flashes as an invariable point of light so long as the speed of revolution remains constant. ”

“ Strictly, the term “monochromatic” light is only applicable to light of a single wave-length (which can have no actual existence) , but it is commonly used to denote light which cannot be analysed by the instruments at our disposal; for example, with low-power instruments the light emitted by sodium vapour would be regarded as homogeneous or monochromatic, but higher power instruments resolve this light into two components of different wave-lengths, each of which is of a higher degree of homogeneity, and it is not impossible that these rays may be capable of further analysis. ”

“ Some substances have the property of transforming luminous radiations, presenting the phenomena of Calorescence, Fluorescence and Phosphorescence. An optical system is composed of any number of Mirrors or Lenses, or of both. If light falling on a system be not brought to a focus, i.e. if all the emergent rays be not concurrent, we are presented with a Caustic and an Aberration. An optical instrument is simply the setting up of an optical system, the Telescope, Microscope, Objective, optical Lantern, Camera Lucida, Camera Obscura and the Kaleidoscope are examples ”

“ The rays of light, curved in non-homogeneous bodies, are always straight lines in homogeneous substances. In an isotropic medium, whether homogeneous or otherwise, they are normal to the wave-fronts, and their velocity is equal to that of the waves.
By applying his construction to the reflection and refraction of light, Huygens accounted for these phenomena in isotropic bodies as well as in Iceland spar. It was afterwards shown by Augustin Fresnel that the double refraction in biaxal crystals can be explained in the same way, provided the proper form be assigned to the wave-surface. ”

“ Meteorological optical phenomena comprise the Corona, Halo, Mirage, Rainbow, colour of Sky and Twilight, and also astronomical refraction (see Refraction, Astronomical) ; the complete theory of the corona involves Diffraction, and atmospheric Dust also plays a part in this group of phenomena.
I. History
§ 1. There is reason to believe that the ancients were more familiar with optics than with any other branch of physics; and this may be due to the fact that for a knowledge of external things man is indebted to the sense of vision in a far greater degree than to other senses. ”

“ The natural philosopher who was bold enough to present to a prince a pair of spectacles or a telescope would be in imminent danger of being regarded in the eyes of the church as a powerful and dangerous magician; and it is conceivable that the maker of such an instrument would jealously guard the secret of its actual construction, however much he might advertise its potentialities. ”

“ The defect would be lessened were the speed of the toothed wheel placed under control of the observer who, by action in one direction or the other, could continually check or accelerate it, so as to keep the return point of light at the required phase of brightness. If the phase of complete extinction is chosen for this purpose a definite result cannot be reached; but by choosing the moment when the light is of a certain definite brightness, before or after an eclipse, the observer will know at each instant whether the speed should be accelerated or retarded, and can act accordingly. ”

“ Colour is due to the absorption of certain rays of the spectrum, the unabsorbed rays being transmitted to the eye, where they occasion the sensation of colour (see Colour; Absorption of Light) . Transparent bodies are seen partly by reflected and partly by transmitted light, and opaque bodies by absorption. Refraction also influences visibility. Objects immersed in a liquid of the same refractive index and dispersion would be invisible; for example, a glass rod can hardly be seen when immersed in Canada balsam ”

“ 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) ”

“ Geometrical optics is a mathematical development (mainly effected by geometrical methods) of three laws assumed to be rigorously true: (1) the law of rectilinear propagation, viz. that light travels in straight lines or rays in any homogeneous medium; (2) the law of reflection, viz. that the incident and reflected rays at any point of a surface are equally inclined to, and coplanar with, the normal to the surface at the point of incidence; and (3) the law of refraction, viz. ”

“ Much experimental work has been done on the production of polarized rays by double refraction and on the reflection of polarized light, either by isotropic or by anisotropic transparent bodies, the object of inquiry being in the latter case to determine the position of the plane of polarization of the reflected rays and their intensity. ”

“ What is ordinarily understood by a transparent substance is one which transmits all the rays of white light without appreciable absorption—that some absorption does occur is perceived when the substance is viewed through a sufficient thickness. ”

“ It appears that white light is a sequence of irregular wave trains which are analysed into series of more regular trains by the prism or grating in a manner comparable with the analytical resolution presented by Fourier’s theorem. The modern view points to the mathematical existence of waves of all wave-lengths in white light, the Newtonian view to the physical existence. ”