alignment of polysiloxane flc 39 s and flc mixtures containing them ito coated glass plates one of which had polyamide spacers of about 3 u03bcm were nylon surface coated the coated glass plates were then brushed in one direction and assembled into a cell such that the rubbing or brushed direction of the two surfaces were parallel polymer flc w249 was heated to the isotopic phase and the cell was filled with the material the resulting flc cell was placed between crossed polarizer and light passage through the cell was measured the cell did not completely extinguish light passage indicating incomplete orientation of the polymer flc this was true even at temperatures in which w249 was an isotopic liquid isotopic w249 was introduced between ito coated glass plates spaced about 3 u03bcm which were nylon surface coated and brushed the pure polymer w249 sample was cooled from the isotropic phase and smectic c focal conics were observed to appear below 146 u00b0 c the focal conics were observed to line up perpendicular to the direction of rubbing indicating that the layer orientation was along the rubbing direction the focal conics grew in size as the sample was further cooled when the sample was at or near the transition to the smectic phase a slight shear was applied along the direction of rubbing as the sample was slowly cooled to make the focal conics grow normal to the shearing direction shear was applied by movement of one of the glass plates in the desired direction shear was applied in one direction until optimal alignment was achieved application.