Here we have another example of multiplied reflection. The light entering the tube, through the hole in the card, falls on the smooth surface of the interior of the tube, and appears to the eye in the form of rings.

Fig. 11 represents a section of the tube, and shows the paths the different rays of light take, and shows how each is reflected from side to side till they all meet in the eye. The dotted lines and the rings projected beyond the tube show how they appear to the eye. By studying this drawing carefully, and trying cross cuts and slits in the card in place of the single hole, you will get a very correct idea of repeated reflection, and find the tube a source of considerable amusement.

EXPERIMENTS IN DISPERSED REFLECTION.

Get a small piece of black velvet or cloth and take it to a dark room, where the heliostat will give us a slender beam of sunlight. If this is not convenient, use a common beam of sunlight in a dark room, as in some of our former experiments. Hold the velvet in the hand between the fingers, and so as to leave the palm of the hand clear. Turn back the coat-sleeve so as to expose part of the white cuff, and then bring the velvet into the beam of sunlight. You

will observe nothing in particular, for the black, rough cloth does not reflect the light at all. Now move the hand, so that the spot of light will fall on the palm. See what a pretty, rosy glow of light falls on the wall! This is the reflected light from the hand. The skin is rough, and the light is diffused and scattered about, and, instead of a bright spot of reflected light, as with a mirror, we have this glow spread all about on the wall and furniture. Now move your hand, so that the sunlight falls on your cuff. Immediately there is a bright light shining on the wall, and lighting the room with a pale, bluish-white glare. Move the hand quickly, so that the black cloth, the hand, and the white cuff, will pass in succession through the beam of light. Observe how the different things reflect the light in different degrees. The cuff is the smoothest and whitest, and gives the brightest reflection; the hand gives less light, because it is less smooth; and the cloth, that has a very dark and rough surface, gives no reflection at all, and the spot of sunlight falling upon it seems dull and faint.

This experiment shows us something more in the reflection of light. A piece of glass, the surface of water, polished metals, ice, and all substances having very smooth surfaces, reflect light in one direction. The linen cuff also reflected light, but apparently in a

very

using.

different manner from the mirrors we have been

Place a lighted lamp upon a table and lay a mirror before it, and you can see a clear and distinct reflection of the lamp and the flame pictured on the glass. Put a sheet of white paper before the lamp, and you can see only a confused spot of reflected light on the brightly-lighted paper. Lay a freshly-ironed napkin or handkerchief before the lamp, and even the indistinct spot of light has disappeared, and the white cloth reflects light equally from every part.

These drawings are intended to show how light is reflected from different surfaces. The first represents a smooth surface, like glass, that sends all the beams in one direction, because the points of reflection for the beam are in the same plane. (See 1, 2, 3, Fig. 12.)

The second drawing represents a slightly-roughened surface, like paper. Some of the points of reflection turn the light one way, some another, and the beam of reflection is no longer formed of parallel rays. They are scattered about, and the image they form is confused and indistinct. In the third drawing we have a rough surface, like cloth, and here the rays of the beam of reflection are scattered in every direction, and we can see no image.

It is in this manner that we are enabled to see the

2

3

FIG. 12.

people and things about us. The light of the sun or a lamp falls upon them, and is reflected into our eyes, and we say we see the objects. Very few things re

flect light so brightly that we obtain from them a reflected image of the source of the light, and we generally see only dispersed and scattered light, that does not blind or dazzle the eye, and enables us to look upon these objects with ease, and to readily see all their parts.

The clouds, the water, the grass, rocks, the ground, buildings, the walls inside, clothing and furniture, and everything we can see, reflect light in every direction again and again, and thus it is that all spaces, without and within, are filled with light so long as the sun shines. At night the sun sinks out of sight, and still it is light for some time after, for the sunlight is reflected from the sunset-clouds and the sky.

Sometimes, upon a summer's day, when broken clouds partly hide the sun, you will see long bars of dusky light streaming from openings in the clouds. These long bars are beams of sunlight shining upon dust and fine mist floating in the air, and we see them because each speck and particle reflects light in every direction.

EXPERIMENT WITH JAR OF SMOKE.

Fig. 13 represents a large, clean glass jar, such as one sees at the confectioner's. It is standing