Humphrey Lloyd's Papers on Conical Refraction

Hamilton's prediction of the phenomenon of conical refraction on the surfaces of biaxal crystals (in which the speed of propagation of light depends on the direction of the light ray) was verified experimentally in 1832 by Humphrey Lloyd, who was at that time Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin.

Humphrey Lloyd published an account of his experiments on conical refraction in a paper entitled

On the Phænomena presented by Light in its Passage along the Axes of Biaxal Crystals.
which appeared in the Philosophical Magazine, 3rd series, volume 2 (1833), pp. 112-120.

This paper is available in the following formats:

This was followed by the paper
Further Experiments on the Phænomena presented by Light in its Passage along the Axes of Biaxal Crystals.
which appeared in the Philosophical Magazine, 3rd series, volume 2 (1833), pp. 207-210.

This paper is available in the following formats:

Humphrey Lloyd described his experiments at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Cambridge in 1833. His account published in the report of that meeting is entitled On Conical Refraction.

Humphrey Lloyd published a more detailed account of his experiment on conical refraction in volume 17 of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, pp. 145-157. (This paper immediately follows Hamilton's famous paper, Third Supplement to an Essay on the Theory of Systems of Rays, which contains the prediction of the phenomenon of conical refraction.)


Links:

D.R. Wilkins
(dwilkins@maths.tcd.ie)
School of Mathematics
Trinity College, Dublin