§ 5 Colours of Unannealed Glass
Bodies are usually expanded by heat and contracted by cold. If the heat be applied with perfect uniformity, no local strains or pressures come into play; but, if one portion of a solid be heated and another portion not, the expansion of the heated portion introduces strains and pressures which reveal themselves under the scrutiny of polarized light. When a square of common window-glass is placed between the Nicols, you see its dim outline, but it exerts no action on the polarized light. Held for a moment over the flame of a spirit-lamp, on reintroducing it between the Nicols, light flashes out upon the screen. Here, as in the case of mechanical action, you have luminous spaces of strain divided by dark neutral axes from spaces of pressure.
Let us apply the heat more symmetrically. A small square of glass is perforated at the centre, and into the orifice a bit of copper wire is introduced. Placing the square between the prisms, and heating the wire, the heat passes by conduction to the glass, through which it spreads from the centre outwards. You immediately see four luminous quadrants and a dim cross, which becomes gradually blacker, by comparison with the adjacent brightness. And as, in the case of pressure, we produced colours, so here also, by the proper application of heat, gorgeous chromatic effects may be evoked. The condition necessary to the production of these colours may be rendered permanent by first heating the glass sufficiently, and then cooling it, so that the chilled mass shall remain in a state of permanent strain and pressure. Two or three examples will illustrate this point. Figs. 40 and 41 represent the figures obtained with two pieces of glass thus prepared; two rectangular pieces of unannealed glass, crossed and placed between the polarizer and analyzer, exhibit the beautiful iris fringes represented in fig. 42.