Cuarrer XIV THE LIPPMANN PROCESS OR INTER- FERENCE HELIOCHROMY HIS is probably the most beautiful of all color proc- esses from a theoretical standpoint and yet is also that which has been the least practised, mainly be- cause one has to prepare the plates, exposures are very Jong, and there is no known means of reproducing the results. It has remained, therefore, purely a labora- tory process. The first suggestion as to the possibility of this proc- ess was made by W. Zenker in 1868; it was later sug- gested by Lord Rayleigh in 1887, and O. Wiener in 1890, but it was not until r89x that G. Lippmann, of Paris, actually succeeded in obtaining a color photograph in this way. In order that the subject may be fully grasped we must enter, even though but superficially, into an ex- planation of the rudimentary principles of light. A brief explanation has already been given of the dispersion of light and the occurrence of the Fraunhofer lines, and the following table gives the principal of these in the visible spectrum with their wave-lengths and the number of vibrations per second: Fraunhofer Line Wavelength Vibrations per Second in Billions A 7593-97 395 B 6867.38 437 x85186 COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY Fraunhofer Line Wavelength Vibrations per Second in Billions c 6562.96 457 dD. 5896.08 509 Da 5890.13 509 E 5270.43 569 by 5183.73 579 F 4861.43 617 G 4301-43 696 h 4701.84 73 H 3968.61 760 K 3933-86 783 The wave-lengths are given in Angstrom units (ro millionths of a millimeter.) Beyond A lies the infra red, the invisible region of which we are sensible in the form of heat; while beyond K is the ultra-violet, by which the chief chemical actions are caused. Light always proceeds in straight lines and is usually supposed to be a wavelike motion in a hypothetical medium which is called the ether. We may assume that the particles of the ether are so closely compacted that a disturbance or vibration of one must give rise to corresponding vibrations in neighboring particles. This being granted, there must be a certain time re- quired for the transfer of the agitation from one par- ticle to another. If we picture the ether particles as a series of beads closely strung together on a wire, ‘we may crudely represent them by J in Fig. 21. If now a pull is given to the first particle at A the vibration will travel along the wire and the beads will vibrate to and fro on both sides of the plane AB and we may, assumingTHE LIPPMANN PROCESS 187 that the direction of the light is from left to right, rep- resent what happens by JT in Fig. 2x, in which A’B’ is the plane of equilibrium or rest, and a is the crest, ® the trough of the wave; the distance of the particles «, 8, ¢, from A'B is called the amplitude of the wave. tt tg pes B xz Fic. 21 A wavelength is the distance between any two points similarly situated as regards the equilibrium plane, so that 4'D’,C’B’, or ar are each a complete wave-length, and obviously the midway points are half wavelengths, thus A’C’ is the half wave-length of 4’D’. When a ray of light meets a reflecting surface it is thrown off according to a well-known law, that the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence; and if a ray is incident normally to a surface, that is, at right angles to it, it is reflected back at the same angle and on the same path. We can thus represent the state of affairs by III in Fig. 21, and the incoming and