Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from Familiar Introduction to the Study of Polarized Light: With a Description of and Instructions for Using, the Table and Hydro-Oxygen Polariscope and Microscope
Huyghens supposed that an exceedingly thin and highly elastic medium called ether fills all space, and occupies the intervals between the particles of all substances; that luminous bodies excite vibrations in this ether, which spread like waves formed by dropping a stone into still water; and that the ethereal vibrations impinging on the retina of the eye produce the sensation of light in the same way as the undulations called sonorous, affecting the auditory nerve, produce the sensation of sound.
Newton objected, that if light, like sound, be propagated by undulations, like sound, it would pass through bent tubes, which he considered contrary to fact; hence be supposed light to consist of material particles emitted by luminous bodies, and moving through space with an immense velocity.
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