The Mechanical Action of Light

The Mechanical Action of Light by William Crookes, F. R. S. SOME experiments illustrating the mechanical action of light, which I have recently exhibited before the Fellows of the Royal Society, having attracted considerable attention, I propose to give here a description of some of the instruments which my researches have enabled me to construct. But, to render the subject more intelligible, it will be necessary to give a brief outline of the researches which I have been carrying on for the last three or four years, so that the reader may see the gradual steps which have led up to the full proof that radiation is a motive power. The experiments were first suggested by some observations made when weighing heavy pieces of glass apparatus in a chemical balance, inclosed in an iron case from which the air could be exhausted. When the substance weighed was of a temperature higher than that of the surrounding air and the weights, there appeared to be a variation of the force of gravitation. Experiments were thereupon instituted to render the action more sensible and to eliminate sources of error.