Page:On the Influence of the Thickness of Air-space on Total Reflection of Electric Radiation.djvu/4

Rh radiation striking one face perpendicularly would be transmitted across the opposite face without deviation and cause a response in the receiver. If the cube be now out across a diagonal, two right-angled isosceles prisms will be obtained. If these two prisms were now separated slightly, keeping the two hypotenuses parallel, the incident radiation would be divided into two portions, of which one portion is transmitted, while the other portion is reflected by the air film in a direction (see fig. 1) at right angles to that of the

incident ray, the angle of incidence at the air-space being always 45°. The transmitted and the reflected portions would be complementary to each other. When the receiver is placed opposite to the radiator, in the A position, the action on the receiver will be due to the transmitted portion; but when the receiver is placed at 90°, or in the B position, the action on the receiver will be due to the reflected portion. The advantage of this method is that the two observations for transmission and reflection can be successively taken in a very short time, during which the sensitiveness of the receiver is not likely to undergo any great change. In practice three readings are taken in succession, the first and the third being taken, say, for transmission and the second for reflection.

I shall now give a general account of the results of the experiments. When the prisms are separated by a thickness of air-space greater than the minimum thickness for total reflection, the rays are wholly reflected, there being no response of the receiver in position A, but strong action in position B. As the thickness is gradually decreased below the critical thickness, the rays begin to be transmitted. The transmitted portion goes on increasing with the diminution of the thickness of air-space, there being a corresponding diminution of the reflected component of the radiation. When the thickness of the air-space is reduced to about 0·3 mm., no reflected portion can be detected even when the receiver is made extremely sensitive. The reflected component is thus practically reduced to zero, the radiation being now entirely transmitted; the two prisms, in spite of the breach due to the air-space, are electro-optically