Abstract
IN 1881, when I wrote the article Light for the Encyc. Britt., I had not been able to meet with any detailed calculations as to the probable state of the atmosphere when multiple images are seen of objects situated near the horizon. I had consulted many papers containing what are called “general” explanations of the phenomena, but had found no proof that the requisite conditions could exist in nature:—except perhaps in the case of the ordinary mirage of the desert, where it is obvious that very considerable temperature-differences may occur in the air within a few feet of the ground. But this form of mirage i essentially unsteady, for it involves an unstable state of equilibrium of the air. In many of Scoresby's observations, especially that of the solitary inverted image of his father's ship (then thirty miles distant, and of course far below the horizon), the details of the image could be clearly seen with a telescope, showing that the air must have been in equilibrium. The problem seemed to be one well fitted for treatment as a simple example of the application of Hamilton's General Method in Optics, and as such I discussed it. The details of my investigation were communicated in the end of that year to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and will, I hope, soon be published. The paper itself is too technical for the general reader, so that I shall here attempt to give a sketch of its contents in a more popular form. But a curious little historical statement must be premised.
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TAIT, P. State of the Atmosphere Which Produces the Forms of Mirage Observed by Vince and by Scoresby . Nature 28, 84–88 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/028084a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/028084a0