square pieces of thick copper. When the square pieces were adjusted with coincident edges, the analyser and polariser were either exactly parallel or exactly crossed. This improvement enabled me to carry out successfully some of the more delicate experiments. In the present course of investigation the sensitiveness of the receiver had to be raised to a still higher extent, and it was found that the polariser hitherto found efficient failed to produce complete polarisation, so that even when the polariser and the analyser were exactly crossed the non-polarised portion of radiation was of sufficient intensity to produce strong action on the receiver.
In the paper "On the Selective Conductivity exhibited by some Polarising Substances"[1] I described a book-form of polariser, when an ordinary book was shown to produce polarisation of the transmitted beam, the vibrations parallel to the pages being absorbed, and those at right angles transmitted in a polarised condition. The advantage of this form of polariser was that the extent to which the rays were polarised depends on the thickness of the polarising medium. The rays could thus be completely polarised by giving the medium a sufficient thickness, this thickness being determined by the intensity of the radiation used and the sensitiveness of the receiver. The necessary thickness of the book-polariser may be materially decreased by making the book consist of alternate leaves of paper and tinfoil. The book being then strongly compressed, blocks of suitable size are cut out to form the polariser and the analyser. Each of these blocks is then enclosed in a brass cell, with two circular openings on opposite sides for the passage of radiation. The size of the polariser I use is 6 x 6 cm., with a thickness of 4·5 cm.; the aperture is 4 cm. in diameter. These polarising cells I find to be quite efficient; when two such cells are crossed, the field is completely extinguished.
Fig. 1.—Polarisation apparatus. B, the radiating box; P, the polariser; A, the analyser; S, S′, the screens; R, the receiver.
- ↑ 'Roy. Proc. Soc.,' vol. 60.
