| RefNo | MS/242/22 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from Étienne-Louis Malus to Thomas Young, dated at Paris |
| Creator | Malus, Etienne-Louis (1775-1812); French physicist; mathematician; member of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt; recipient of the Rumford Medal |
| Date | 1 June 1811 |
| Description | Addressed to Young as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society.
Thanks the Royal Society for receiving the [Rumford] Medal for his contribution to light.
Adds demonstrations related to the nature of polarised light, using series of glass panels, crystals and polished metal to look at refraction, reflection. Shows that the experiments do not agree either with the theory of light as being emitted or that light is a wave, stating that both hypotheses are insufficient to explain what the experiments show.
Thanks Young for sending an Eriometer, useful to measure the width of wool fibres.
Sending a treatise on double refraction.
Pencil annotation at the top of the letter noting "communicated at the request of the President". |
| Language | French |
| Extent | 4p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA7947 | Young; Thomas (1773 - 1829); physician, physicist and Egyptologist | 1773 - 1829 |