. Biographies of distinguished scientific men. Scientists. CIRCULAR POLARIZATION. 229 from certain sections of it which Fresnel pointed out. The properties of rays circularly polarized also led our colleague to new and very curious means of producing coloured polarization.* * The author must be supposed here to allude to that remarkable instance of circular polarization which is produced by transmitting a plane polarized ray along the axis of quartz or rock crystal, and which depends, as he says, not on the nature of the crystal, but on the section of it, that is to say, on the thickness: the
. Biographies of distinguished scientific men. Scientists. CIRCULAR POLARIZATION. 229 from certain sections of it which Fresnel pointed out. The properties of rays circularly polarized also led our colleague to new and very curious means of producing coloured polarization.* * The author must be supposed here to allude to that remarkable instance of circular polarization which is produced by transmitting a plane polarized ray along the axis of quartz or rock crystal, and which depends, as he says, not on the nature of the crystal, but on the section of it, that is to say, on the thickness: the effect continually changing as slices are cut from the crystal perpendicular to its axis of increas- ing thickness. This statement is somewhat remarkable, as he here unequivocally ascribes the discovery to Fresnel, which has been usually by English writers ascribed to himself. The term "rotatory" polarization has been since appropriated to describe this phenomenon. Yet the student must be careful to dis- tinguish the application of this term from that of " circular" polar- ization. The light is in fact circularly polarized: but the effect called "rotation" is quite distinct from the " ; It may be desirable to add a brief explanation. Let a ray, k, polarized in a. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Arago, F. (François), 1786-1853; Smyth, W. H. (William Henry), 1788-1865; Powell, Baden, 1796-1860; Grant, Robert, 1814-1892; Fairbairn, William, Sir, 1789-1874. Boston, Ticknor and Fields
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