THE SPECTROSCOPE AND ITS REVELATIONS. Within the last few years a new form of chemical analysis has arisen which ascertains substances by observatior upon the color and properties which they impart to-flames during combustion. It has been long known that the combustion of certain bodies gave certain colors to flames ; strontia for ex ample affordiikg the beautiful crimson so well known in pyrotechuy But no sure method existed of using the facts of combustion for chemical investigations until the invention of the spectroscope. Spectrum analysis enables us to detect the minutest trace of the
THE SPECTROSCOPE AND ITS REVELATIONS. Within the last few years a new form of chemical analysis has arisen which ascertains substances by observatior upon the color and properties which they impart to-flames during combustion. It has been long known that the combustion of certain bodies gave certain colors to flames ; strontia for ex ample affordiikg the beautiful crimson so well known in pyrotechuy But no sure method existed of using the facts of combustion for chemical investigations until the invention of the spectroscope. Spectrum analysis enables us to detect the minutest trace of the constituents of substances burnt. It has already discovered several unsuspected new metals ; has given us the pm er of analyzing bodies whose com position we had not the means of ascertaining and has. proved to us that many of the the earth are present in the inaccessible sun and- even in those more remote stars whose distance the most refined researches of astronomy cannot determine. The spectroscope is merely a prism to which light with apparatus for examining microscopically the spectrum or decomposed ray beyond the prism. When this is done the spectrum is found to be crossed by an infinite number of lines perpendicular to its length as shown in the upper part of Fig. 2. These lines are called from the name of the distin guished optician who discovered them Fraunhofer's lines. When the light coming from a white-hot mass of metal is examined by the spectvoscope its spectrum is found to be perfectly continuous and unbroken by any Fraunhofer lines. This fact was demonstrated by my father Prof. J. W. Draper. In 1847. What is the cause of the ltnes in the solar light and in what does that luminary differ from the incandescent maga ?. In order to fathom this question we must investi gate for a few moments the case of 'artificial lights such as ordinary flames and those in which there are purposely introduced various elementary or com pound bodies. The construction of the
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