Identity area
Reference code
Add. MS a/201/78
Title
Letter from David Brewster
Date(s)
- 30 May 1830 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
4 pp
Context area
Name of creator
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Allerly by Melrose - DB is 'much obliged to you for your account of Goethe's theory of refraction, and I cannot conceive how a man in a sane state of mind could publish such nonsense'. DB will be happy to publish WW's observations on Dr Lardner's [Dionysius Lardner] Mechanics. Pleased to hear George Airy is giving lectures on polarisation. DB is working hard on this subject: 'I have discussed the mathematical law which expresses the quantity of light polarised either by reflexion or refraction of any angle of incidence', and a new phenomena of polarisation he calls 'Elliptical'. DB thinks he has proved that 'pressure is the cause of double refraction in regular crystals'.