Paper, 'On the cause of the light border frequently noticed in photographs just outside the outline of a dark body seen against the sky; with some introductory remarks on phosphorescence' by G G [George Gabriel] Stokes

Description

Stokes writes: 'An observation I made the other day with solar phosphori, though not involving anything new in principle, suggested to me an explanation of the above phenomenon which seems to me very likely to be the true one. On inquiring from Captain Abney whether it had already been explained, he wrote: “The usual explanation of the phenomenon you describe is that the silver solution on the part of the plate on which the dark objects fall has nowhere to deposit, and hence the metallic silver is deposited to the nearest part strongly acted upon by light.” As this explanation seems to me to involve some difficulties, I venture to offer another [...] I will first mention the suggestive experiment, which is not wholly uninteresting on its own account, as affording a pretty illustration of what is already known, and furnishing an easy and rapid mode of determining in a rough way the character of the absorption of media for rays of low refrangibility.'

Annotations in pencil and ink.

Subject: Photography / Optics

Received 22 May 1882. Read 25 May 1882.

A version of this paper was published in volume 34 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the cause of the light border frequently noticed in photographs just outside the outline of a dark body seen against the sky; with some introductory remarks on phosphorescence'.

Reference number

PP/2/9

Earliest possible date

1882

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

8 pages

Format

Typescript