VII. An experimental investigation into the form of the wave surface of quartz

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Abstract
About two years ago I read a paper before the Cambridge Philosophical Society describing some measurements of the “dark rings” in quartz. The present paper contains an account of similar measurements made with greatly improved apparatus, and extending over a much larger field. These “dark rings” supply a delicate method of determining the retardation of the extraordinary wave behind the ordinary in the crystal and consequently the separation between the two sheets at various points of the wave-surface. In quartz the wave-surface may be nearly represented by a prolate spheroid sur­rounded by a sphere passing through the extremities of its axis. The spheroid is slightly flattened at the extremity of its axis and the sphere slightly bulged, so that the two no longer touch. The distance between the two at the extremity of the axis we know very accurately from observations on the rotatory power, while the two radii at the equator of the wave-surface are known from observations with the spectrometer.

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