X. An experimental determination of the values of the velocities of normal propagation of plane waves in different directions in a biaxal crystal, and a comparison of the results with theory

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1879
• Subjects: Malus; Sav’; Wollaston; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1879.0070; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1879.0070

Part I. Preliminary.-Professor Stokes's Report to the British Association, 1862, with Outline of the Method. Section I.-Review of Previous Experiments and Criticism of Fresnel's. In his report to the British Association in 1862, Professor Stokes says: "The exactness of the spheroidal form, assigned by Hughens to the sheet of the wave surface within Iceland spar, does not seem to have been tested to the same degree of rigour as the ordinary refraction of the ordinary ray; for the methods applied by Wollaston (Phil. Trans., 1802, p. 381) and Malus (Mem. de l'Institut Sav. Etran., tom. ii., p. 303, 1811) for observing the extraordinary refraction can hardly bear comparison for exactness with the method of prismatic refraction adopted for the ordinary ray; and observations on the absolute velocities of propagation in different directions within biaxal crystals are almost wholly wanting.