ON THE CHANGE OF REFRANGIBILITY OF LIGHT.
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make the dispersed rays pass through a still greater thickness of the medium before reaching the eye, the dark band increased in width, and when the red beam was almost absorbed, the part that was left consisted of two cones of red, one at each side of the dark band, which by this time had become broad. The whole appearance seemed to indicate that the bright red beam of dispersed light had a very intimate connexion with the intense absorption band No. 1.
54. Among coloured glasses, there is one combination which produces a very striking effect. When a deep blue glass is placed in the first position, the dispersed light, if the solution be at all strong, is confined to a very thin stratum adjacent to the surface, and is best seen by placing the vessel so that the surface of the fluid at which the light enters is situated at a little distance on either side of the focus of the lens, when there is seen a bright circle of a most beautiful crimson colour. It might be supposed that the red of which this circle mainly consists was nothing but the extreme red transmitted by the blue glass. But it is readily shown that such is not the case. For in the first place, the fluid transmits pretty freely the red transmitted by the blue glass, whereas the red light found in this circle is almost confined to the surface of the fluid. Again, it was found that a pale brown glass, which transmitted freely the extreme red, almost entirely cut off the bright circle, when placed in the first position without removing the blue glass, although it freely transmitted it when placed in the second position. It appears, therefore, that the bright circle is due, not to the red, but to the highly refrangible rays transmitted by the blue glass.
55. When a solution of leaf-green was examined by the third method, the appearance as seen from the outside was very singular. The fixed lines in all the more refrangible part of the spectrum were seen as interruptions in a bright red ground verging to crimson. The beauty and purity of the tint, and the strange contrast which it presented to the colours belonging to that part of the spectrum, were very striking. About H the tint began to verge towards brown, and the fixed lines beyond H were seen on a brownish red ground. That the ground on which the fixed lines of somewhat less refrangibility were seen was rather
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