I. Experiments on the successive polarization of light ; with the description of a new polarizing apparatus

Abstract The term successive polarization was applied by Biot to denote the effects produced when a ray of polarized light is transmitted through a plate of rock—crystal cut perpendicularly to the axis, or through limited depths of certain liquids. In these cases the plane of polarization is found to be changed on emergence, and differently for each homogeneous ray ; so that, when white light is employed, on turning the analyzer round con­tinuously in one direction different colours successively appear, rising or falling in the scale according to the nature of the substance.