Opticks. Isaac Newton

Experiment, and viewing the Paper through a third Prism held parallel to it, I saw that half of it which was illuminated by the violet Light to be divided from the other half by a greater Refraction, especially when I went a good way off from the Paper. For when I viewed it too near at hand, the two halfs of the Paper did not appear fully divided from one another, but seemed contiguous at one of their Angles like the painted Paper in the first Experiment. Which also happened when the Paper was too broad.

       Fig. 19.

      Sometimes instead of the Paper I used a white Thred, and this appeared through the Prism divided into two parallel Threds as is represented in the nineteenth Figure, where DG denotes the Thred illuminated with violet Light from D to E and with red Light from F to G, and defg are the parts of the Thred seen by Refraction. If one half of the Thred be constantly illuminated with red, and the other half be illuminated with all the Colours successively, (which may be done by causing one of the Prisms to be turned about its Axis whilst the other remains unmoved) this other half in viewing the Thred through the Prism, will appear in a continual right Line with the first half when illuminated with red, and begin to be a little divided from it when illuminated with Orange, and remove farther from it when illuminated with yellow, and still farther when with green, and farther when with blue, and go yet farther off when illuminated with Indigo, and farthest when with deep violet. Which plainly shews, that the Lights of several Colours are more and more refrangible one than another, in this Order of their Colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, deep violet; and so proves as well the first Proposition as the second.

      I caused also the coloured Spectrums PT [in Fig. 17.] and MN made in a dark Chamber by the Refractions of two Prisms to lie in a Right Line end to end, as was described above in the fifth Experiment, and viewing them through a third Prism held parallel to their Length, they appeared no longer in a Right Line, but became broken from one another, as they are represented at pt and mn, the violet end m of the Spectrum mn being by a greater Refraction translated farther from its former Place MT than the red end t of the other Spectrum pt.

      I farther caused those two Spectrums PT [in Fig. 20.] and MN to become co-incident in an inverted Order of their Colours, the red end of each falling on the violet end of the other, as they are represented in the oblong Figure PTMN; and then viewing them through a Prism DH held parallel to their Length, they appeared not co-incident, as when view'd with the naked Eye, but in the form of two distinct Spectrums pt and mn crossing one another in the middle after the manner of the Letter X. Which shews that the red of the one Spectrum and violet of the other, which were co-incident at PN and MT, being parted from one another by a greater Refraction of the violet to p and m than of the red to n and t, do differ in degrees of Refrangibility.

      I illuminated also a little Circular Piece of white Paper all over with the Lights of both Prisms intermixed, and when it was illuminated with the red of one Spectrum, and deep violet of the other, so as by the Mixture of those Colours to appear all over purple, I viewed the Paper, first at a less distance, and then at a greater, through a third Prism; and as I went from the Paper, the refracted Image thereof became more and more divided by the unequal Refraction of the two mixed Colours, and at length parted into two distinct Images, a red one and a violet one, whereof the violet was farthest from the Paper, and therefore suffered the greatest Refraction. And when that Prism at the Window, which cast the violet on the Paper was taken away, the violet Image disappeared; but when the other Prism was taken away the red vanished; which shews, that these two Images were nothing else than the Lights of the two Prisms, which had been intermixed on the purple Paper, but were parted again by their unequal Refractions made in the third Prism, through which the Paper was view'd. This also was observable, that if one of the Prisms at the Window, suppose that which cast the violet on the Paper, was turned about its Axis to make all the Colours in this order, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, fall successively on the Paper from that Prism, the violet Image changed Colour accordingly, turning successively to indigo, blue, green, yellow and red, and in changing Colour came nearer and nearer to the red Image made by the other Prism, until when it was also red both Images became fully co-incident.

      I placed also two Paper Circles very near one another, the one in the red Light of one Prism, and the other in the violet Light of the other. The Circles were each of them an Inch in diameter, and behind them the Wall was dark, that the Experiment might not be disturbed by any Light coming from thence. These Circles thus illuminated, I viewed through a Prism, so held, that the Refraction might be made towards the red Circle, and as I went from them they came nearer and nearer together, and at length became co-incident; and afterwards when I went still farther off, they parted again in a contrary Order, the violet by a greater Refraction being carried beyond the red.

      Exper. 8. In Summer, when the Sun's Light uses to be strongest, I placed a Prism at the Hole of the Window-shut, as in the third Experiment, yet so that its Axis might be parallel to the Axis of the World, and at the opposite Wall in the Sun's refracted Light, I placed an open Book. Then going six Feet and two Inches from the Book, I placed there the above-mentioned Lens, by which the Light reflected from the Book might be made to converge and meet again at the distance of six Feet and two Inches behind the Lens, and there paint the Species of the Book upon a Sheet of white Paper much after the manner of the second Experiment. The Book and Lens being made fast, I noted the Place where the Paper was, when the Letters of the Book, illuminated by the fullest red Light of the Solar Image falling upon it, did cast their Species on that Paper most distinctly: And then I stay'd till by the Motion of the Sun, and consequent Motion of his Image on the Book, all the Colours from that red to the middle of the blue pass'd over those Letters; and when those Letters were illuminated by that blue, I noted again the Place of the Paper when they cast their Species most distinctly upon it: And I found that this last Place of the Paper was nearer to the Lens than its former Place by about two Inches and an half, or two and three quarters. So much sooner therefore did the Light in the violet end of the Image by a greater Refraction converge and meet, than the Light in the red end. But in trying this, the Chamber was as dark as I could make it. For, if these Colours be diluted and weakned by the Mixture of any adventitious Light, the distance between the Places of the Paper will not be so great. This distance in the second Experiment, where the Colours of natural Bodies were made use of, was but an Inch and an half, by reason of the Imperfection of those Colours. Here in the Colours of the Prism, which are manifestly more full, intense, and lively than those of natural Bodies, the distance is two Inches and three quarters. And were the Colours still more full, I question not but that the distance would be considerably greater. For the coloured Light of the Prism, by the interfering of the Circles described in the second Figure of the fifth Experiment, and also by the Light of the very bright Clouds next the Sun's Body intermixing with these Colours, and by the Light scattered by the Inequalities in the Polish of the Prism, was so very much compounded, that the Species which those faint and dark Colours, the indigo and violet, cast upon the Paper were not distinct enough to be well observed.

      Exper. 9. A Prism, whose two Angles at its Base were equal to one another, and half right ones, and the third a right one, I placed in a Beam of the Sun's Light let into a dark Chamber through a Hole in the Window-shut, as in the third Experiment. And turning the Prism slowly about its Axis, until all the Light which went through one of its Angles, and was refracted by it began to be reflected by its Base, at which till then it went out of the Glass, I observed that those Rays which had suffered the greatest Refraction were sooner reflected than the rest. I conceived therefore, that those Rays of the reflected Light, which were most refrangible, did first of all by a total Reflexion become more copious in that Light than the rest, and that afterwards the rest also, by a total Reflexion, became as copious as these. To try this, I made the reflected Light pass through another Prism, and being refracted by it to fall afterwards upon a Sheet of white Paper placed at some distance behind it, and there by that Refraction to paint the usual Colours of the Prism. And then causing the first Prism to be turned about its Axis as above, I observed that when those Rays, which in this Prism had suffered the greatest Refraction, and appeared of a blue and violet Colour began to be totally reflected, the blue and violet Light on the Paper, which was most refracted in the second Prism, received a sensible Increase