ON THE CHANGE OF REFRANGIBILITY OF LIGHT. 353
In chrysoberyl, cyanite and topaz, the dispersed light was red or reddish, and was too variable to allow of its being attributed to the essential constituents of the crystals. In these cases the sensibility was but slight; indeed in cyanite there was only a trace of dispersion when the crystal was examined under great concentration of light.
Coloured Glasses.
167. Besides canary glass, I have examined the common coloured glasses, including that coloured by gold, but with one exception have not met with any example in which the sensibility observed appeared to have any connexion with the colouring matter. The paler glasses exhibited a little internal dispersion, because the colour was not sufficiently intense to mask the dispersion which a common colourless glass would exhibit.
168. The exception occurred in the case of the pale brown glass, which has been already mentioned in connexion with my first experiment. This glass dispersed a red light under the influence of the highly refrangible rays. The colour of the light was not pure prismatic red, but red was predominant. A similar dispersion, due apparently to the same cause, was observed in the case of one of the common reddish brown German wine bottles. The sensibility of these glasses appears to be due to an alkaline sulphurct. [?] A bead purposely coloured in this manner was in fact found to disperse a red light like the glasses. Moreover, in the confused masses obtained by fusing sulphate of soda and sulphate of potash on charcoal before the blowpipe, certain portions were found which dispersed a red light, and that pretty copiously for an inorganic substance. A similar dispersion was observed among the products obtained by fusing together sulphur and carbonate of potash, while other parts of the confused mass exhibited dispersion of a different kind. It seems plain that among the combinations of sulphur with the alkalies sensitive compounds exist, but what they are I have not examined.