Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/31

 motion the velocity of the corpuscles of light, and thus producing the fits of transmission and reflection; and even this supposition does not much assist the explanation. It appears, from the accurate analysis of the phænomena which has given, and which has by no means been superseded by any later observations, that the same colour recurs whenever the thickness answers to the terms of an arithmetical progression. Now this is precisely similar to the production of the same sound, by means of an uniform blast, from organ-pipes which are different multiples of the same length. Supposing white light to be a continued impulse or stream of luminous ether, it may be conceived to act on the plates as a blast of air does on the organ-pipes, and to produce vibrations regulated in frequency by the length of the lines which are terminated by the two refracting surfaces. It may be objected that, to complete the analogy, there should be tubes, to answer to the organ-pipes: but the tube of an organ-pipe is only necessary to prevent the divergence of the impression, and in light there is little or no tendency to diverge; and indeed, in the case of a resonant passage, the air is not prevented from becoming sonorous by the liberty of lateral motion. It would seem, that the determination of a portion of the track of a ray of light through any homogeneous stratum of ether, is sufficient to establish a length as a basis for colorific vibrations. In inflections, the length of the track of a ray of light through the inflecting atmosphere may determine its vibrations: but, in this case, as it is probable that there is a reflection from every part of the surface of the surrounding atmosphere, contributing to the appearance of the white line in every direction, in the experiments already mentioned, so it is possible that there may be some second reflection