Abstract
LONDON. Physical Society, April 22.—Mr. Shelford Bid well, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—A paper by Prof. T. C. Porter, on a method of viewing Newton's rings, was read by Prof. S. P. Thompson. If a parallel beam of light from a rectangular slit falls at oblique incidence upon a plane plate of glass, the first two reflections occur at the upper and lower surfaces of the glass, respectively, and give two corresponding images that may be formed on a screen. If now a second glass plate is added below the first, and parallel to it, at a short distance, four images of the slit appear on the screen. But when the lower plate is brought into contact with the upper one, the reflection from the lower surface of the upper plate follows the same path as that from the upper surface of the lower plate, so that only three images are now to be distinguished. For the two glass plates the author substitutes a “Newton's rings” apparatus, and by the above device for eliminating a set of reflections he is able to restrict the illumination to the light that comes from the two-interior surfaces. As thus observed, the colours of the rings are very brilliant.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 57, 622–624 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057622b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057622b0