The author, by way of introduction, passes in review the labours of various inquirers on the subject of the elliptic polarization of light, and notices more particularly those of Sir David Brewster, who first discovered this curious property, as recorded in the Philosophical Transactions for 1830; of Mr. Airy, in the Cambridge Transactions for 1831 and 1832; and of Professor Lloyd, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1840, and in the Reports of the British Association for 1841. He then proceeds to give an account of his own experimental examination of the phenomena of elliptic polarization in the reflection of light from various surfaces, by observing the modifications of the polarized rings under different conditions, both of surface and of incidence, and by endeavouring to ascertain both the existence and amount of ellipticity, as shown by the dislocation of those rings, and to determine its peculiar chataracter, as indicated by the direction in which the dislocation takes place; the protrusion of the alternate quadrants appearing it certain cases, in one direction, and in others in the opposite. These observations are reducible to two classes; first, those designed to contribute to the inquiry, what substances possess the property of elliptic polarization, by examining the light reflected from bodies; and second, those made on certain cases on of films of several kinds, including those formed on metals by oxidation or other action upon the metal itself, as well as by extraneous deposition. The author found the general result, in all these cases, to be, that from any one tint to another, through each entire order of tints, the form of the rings in the reflected light undergoes certain regular changes, passing from a dislocation in one direction to that in the opposite, through an intermediate point of no dislocation, or of plane polarization; and thus exhibiting a dark and a bright centred system alternately, as long as the order of tints are preserved pure. These changes in the form of the rings, he observes, are precisely those expressed by successive modifications of Mr. Airy's formula, corresponding to the increments in the retardation which belong to the periodical colours of the films. The remaining portion of the paper is occupied by a description of the apparatus and mode of conducting the experiments; and of the observations made on mica, on decomposed glass, plumbago, daguerreotype, and other metallic plates, and on the coloured films produced on steel and on copper by the action of heat, and of voltaic electricity. The author gives, in conclusion, an analytical investigation of Mr. Airy’s general formula.
Experimental researches on the elliptic polarization of light