Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PO-LAR-I-ZA'TION, n.

The act of giving polarity to a body. Polarization of light, a change produced upon light by the action of certain Media, by which it exhibits the appearance of having polarity, or poles possessing different properties. This property of light was first discovered by Huygens in his investigation of the cause of double refraction, as seen in the Iceland crystal. The attention of opticians was more particularly directed toward it by the discoveries of Malus, 1810. The knowledge of this singular property of light, has afforded an explanation of several very intricate phenomena in optics.