Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-02-27
rAcTs AeouT caYsTALs.
Discovery of More Perfect Way of MsAs-
 uring Natures Atoms.

uring Natures Atoms.
 The suggestion of hypothesis for a new law of crystalline structure has resulted from the experimental re- searches of the Rev. ". F. 0. Nor sell. who was recently awarded tho John Scott medal by the city of Phil adelphia on the recommendation of the Franklin institute for his discov- cries in the application of polaTiza- tion colors to art teaching.
 If the hypothesis be verified, which seems very probable, it will be a rad ically new law of capitalization, yet 1t will be no more than an applica- ton of Sir David Brewster's law of polarization, which, however, has so far never been applied to solving the angles of crystals.
 Mir. Morsell has noticed that varia- tions of the crystal angles from 90 degrees are always multiples of the distance between the path of the rays in double refracting crystal. For instance, in Iceland spar the rays sep arated about degrees and % min utes and 19 degrees, the angle of the face for incident light, is three times this distance.
 Testing the hypothesis, it was found that the indices of refraction for both rays could be worked out trigonomet- rically by the ratio of sines and co- sines of the crystals angles.
 Inquartz Mir. Morsell observed such remarkable verifcation of the hy- pothesis that a quartz crystal appears to be- to use his own language, ma ture's own edition of trigonometricaI tables"
 If this new theory beyerifed, it will lead to the conclusion that there is 6 trace of an ideal crystal in the nat ural prism of spar and that the vari- atons of the natural crystal from the ideal are measured by comparing the angles of the natural crystal with 90 degrees or with the nearest submul- tiT,le of 360 degrees.
 In quartz, which is double refract- ing, the paths of the rays differ by 30 minutes. This enters many hundreds of times into the angles of quartz. The multiples are true for degrees and true for seconds, and 70 on to in- fnity.
 It follows that the index of refrac- tion can be applied to infnitesimal molecular calculations and in the tfin layer of molecules on any pol ishe7 surface there IS the apparatus to determine the p1th of reflected rays, and the shape of the molecule itself or of some infnitesimal group of molecules may have an angular relation to the wave length ot the refraeted ray. All bodies like glass, polished stone. etc, which have an index of refraction must have a molecular structure with crystal an- gles in the molecules sufficiently reg ular to affect different wave lengths of light.
 In very small angles the sine and tangent become identical with the curve which they measure, so that molecule or group of molecules is ap- proximately bounded by circles, but when compared wit-l a wave length of light it's angles must have a dis tinct effect, so that in thin molec- ular layer on a surface of any sub stance the molecules sre infnitesi- mal crystals, each with its own re- fraction and polarizing angle.
 The suggestion of this law has been laid before several scientific men, who consider the facts exceedingly hope ful in giving a radical explanation of crystal phenomena from an optical standpoint, and Mir. Morsell has been advised to communicate the facts to Dr. Crookes, the celebrated German scientist. Philadelphia Times.