Page:Collected Physical Papers.djvu/95

Rh are, therefore, in the ratio of 5·2 : 1. With an E. M. F. of 100 volts and a diminished sensibility of the galvanometer, the deflections were 205 and 40, the ratio of the conductivities being as 5·1 : 1.

It would thus appear that substances like nemalite which polarise by double absorption, also exhibit double conductivity. It is probable that, owing to this difference of conductivity in the two directions, each thin layer unequally absorbs the incident electric vibrations; and that by the cumulative effect of many such layers, the vibrations which are perpendicular to the direction of maximum conductivity are alone transmitted, the emergent beam being thus completely polarised.

It should, however, be borne in mind that the selective absorption exhibited by a substance depends, also, on the vibration frequency of the incident radiation. I have drawn attention to the peculiarity of tourmaline which does not exhibit double absorption of the electric ray to a very great extent. The specimen I experimented with is, however, one of a black variety of tourmaline, and not of the semi-transparent kind generally used for optical work.

Though the experiments already described are not sufficiently numerous for drawing a general conclusion as to the connection between double absorption attended with polarisation, and double conductivity, there is, however, a large number of experiments I have carried out which seem to show that a double-conducting structure does, as a rule, exhibit double absorption and consequent polarisation. Out of these experiments I shall here mention one which may prove interesting. Observing that an ordinary book is unequally conducting in the two directions—parallel to and across