CLXXXVIII.—The rotatory dispersive power of organic compounds. Part XI. The molecular weight of ethyl tartrate and the origin of anomalous rotatory dispersion in tartaric acid and its derivatives

1924 ◽  
Vol 125 (0) ◽  
pp. 1465-1470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Martin Lowry ◽  
John Outram Cutter

Biot, the distinguished French physicist, to whose genius we owe the discovery, in 1815, of the property now spoken of as optical rotatory power, made the further discovery that certain substances in solution, notably tartaric acid, offer an exception to the rule that the deviation which a polarised ray undergoes in its passage through a liquid is greater the shorter the wave-length. The precise manner in which variation takes place was established by Arndtsen, who determined the rotatory power of solutions of tartaric acid using light of the refrangibility of the lines c , D, E, b , F, e of the solar spectrum. In calling attention to these observations, in the article “Light” in the third Supplement of Watts’ ‘Dictionary of Chemistry’, published in 1881 one of us pointed out (p. 1208) that—


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document