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French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a "note" read to the Academy of Sciences, reported a direct refraction experiment verifying David Brewster's hypothesis that photoelasticity (as we now call it) is stress-induced birefringence.
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Augustin-Jean Fresnel
French optical physicist (1788–1827)
Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, fully supplanting Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
French Academy of Sciences
French learned society
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
David Brewster
British astronomer and mathematician (1781–1868)
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Photoelasticity
Change in optical properties of a material due to stress
In materials science, photoelasticity describes changes in the optical properties of a material under mechanical deformation. It is a property of all dielectric media and is often used to experimentally determine the stress distribution in a material.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Birefringence
Refractive property of materials
Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefringent or birefractive. The…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)