Abstract
For high accuracy in commercial refractometry, refractometers should be used more strictly as comparison instruments and series of standard samples with known refractivities over a range of room temperatures should be available for frequent check measurements. Tests for various mechanical and optical defects are necessary and compensators should be examined for their possible deviation of sodium light. Care in the selection of suitable contact liquids for solid media is advisable for several reasons. Owing to inherent difficulties in the design of illuminating prisms there are possibilities of getting different readings on solids and liquids of identical refractivity. Since dispersion measurements as usually made with the compensator are necessarily less reliable than is generally realized, it is recommended that line spectra sources be employed whenever accurate dispersions are desired and that the scale be calibrated for each wave-length that is to be used.
© 1942 Optical Society of America
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