Abstract
The subjects here chosen for experiment are such bodies as have in general no power of polarizing or depolarizing light, and the means employed for communicating these properties are purely mechanical. In the first instance, a piece of plate-glass was taken, and compressed edge-wise between two screws, and was found to polarize light in every part of its breadth, with depolarizing axes, making an angle of 45° with the edges of the plate. When a narrow slip of plate-glass is attempted to be bent edgewise, the inner edge becomes compressed sufficiently to produce the effect of depolarization; and the exterior edge of the curve, by being dilated, also depolarizes: but the characters of the fringes of colour produced in the two cases are different; since those which arise from compression are such as are produced by calcareous spar and beryl; but those caused by dilatation of the exterior edge are such as appear from the action of sulphate of lime, quartz, and other bodies of that class.
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