On the light from the sky, its polarization and colour by the Hon. J. W. Strutt.

Rayleigh, John William Strutt, 1842-1919

Published by Lexington, Mass.: Itek Corporation, 1966

About this Item

Rayleigh, John William Strutt, 1842-1919. On the light from the sky, its polarization and colour by the Hon. J. W. Strutt. Lexington, Mass.: Itek Corporation, 1966, unpaginated, 50pp., large PAPERBACK, very good copy with some wear to covers, reproduction includes smudges and signs of wear. Facsimile reproduction of manuscript completed on Dec. 30, 1870. In the fell of 1870, John William Strutt (later the third Lord Rayleigh) was engaged in some experimental studies of color vision. While testing his subjects in the daylight just outside of his laboratory at Torling Place, Essex, he observed that different readings were obtained when the sky was a clear blue from those obtained on a gray, overcast day. In mid-November, he commenced a short series of about 30 measurements, comparing the light from the zenith sky with sunlight, from the blue to the red. He then analyzed his data and derived theoretically the quantitative relationship for the scattering of light by small particles (Rayleigh scattering). This paper he completed on 30 December 1870 and then sent it to the Philosophical Magazine. It was published with almost no change in the February 1871 issue, and was the first proper explanation for the mechanism of the blue of the sky or the red of the sunset. This is paper number 8 in the collected Scientific Papers of Lord Rayleigh. Rayleigh saved only 5 or 6 manuscripts of his first hundred papers, but he knew even then that paper 8 was worth saving. This reproduction was produced by the Publications Department at Itek Corporation on the occasion of the dedication of the Rayleigh collection at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedford, Massachusetts, on 30 March 1966. Every effort has been made to make this facsimile a faithful copy of the original: the color of the ink and of the paper; even smudge marks have been reproduced. Seller Inventory # 83643

Bibliographic Details

Title: On the light from the sky, its polarization ...

Publisher: Lexington, Mass.: Itek Corporation, 1966

Binding: Soft cover