FRESNEL, A. (AUGUSTIN). - THE "SECOND MEMOIR" OF 1827, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION.

Memoir on Double Refraction. (From the Mémoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences d l'Institut de France, tome vii. 1827).

London, Taylor and Francis, 1852. 8vo. Without wrappers. In: "Scientific Memoirs, selected from Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science... Edited by Richard Taylor.", Vol. V, Part XVIII. With titlepage to Vol. V. Pp. (151-) 352 (entire part offered). Fresnel's paper: pp. 238-333. Clean and fine. Titlepage with a small faint stamp.

First appearance in English of Fresnel's famous memoir - the memoir of 1827, his so-called second memoir - in which some of his groundbreaking discoveries concerning light is stated. He applies the concept of transverse waves to double refraction and representing the final construction, in the form of an equation of the fourth degree.
In the paper Fresnel also explained the fact,that in some cases of quartz the rotation of polarization is from left to right and in other cases from right to left.. He proposed the term 'helical' to denote the property of rotating the plane of polarization, exhibited by such bodies as quartz. The term 'natural rotatory polarisation' is however, generally used.

This memoir contains the first printing of three unpublished memoirs from 1821 and 1822 (Mémoire sur la double refraction.Extrait Read 26. Nov., 1821 - Supplement, presented 22 January 1822 - Second Supplement, presented April 1, 1822. - Explication de la réfraction dans le système des Ondes from "Bulletin Soc. Philom.", 1821. See Jed. Z. Buchwald "The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light", pp. 461-63.

Order-nr.: 47019