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Nie wszystko zaczęło się od Bunsena i Kirchhoffa – nieznane wątki wczesnej historii spektroskopu optycznego (1810–1860)

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RODZEŃ J.

Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU

2012

vol. 11

227-270

The present paper tries to confront the widespread view according to which the inventors of the optical spectroscope were essentially two eminent German scholars: Robert W. Bunsen (1811–1899) and Gustav R. Kirchhoff (1824–1887). Extensive searches in the available published sources were performed. The main result is that this opinion appears to be wrong. It also clearly points to several other researchers who effectively constructed basic types of the spectroscope much earlier, already in the years 1810–1860. Of course, there is no doubt that Bunsen’s and Kirchhoff’s groundbreaking research (1859–1861) led to the consolidation of a new research method, i.e. spectrochemical analysis, but not to the invention of the spectroscope itself. It is true that available sources concerning the history of the spectroscope are very few. Also very few studies have so far been devoted on this subject. We discuss this briefly. Next, the paper presents the main historical types of the spectroscopic apparatus, in particular Joseph Fraunhofer’s (1787–1826) three examples (two prismatic ones and one with diffraction grating) invented in the years 1810–1823; William Simms’ (1793–1860) “two-telescopic” type with collimator (this type was actually implemented in the BunsenKirchhof’s version of the apparatus). Then we describe a similar to Simm’s version, Jacques Babinet’s (1794–1872) “two-telescopic” reflecting goniometer (later in 1850s widely used in spectroscopic observations). We describe also Félix Dujardin’s (1801–1860) spectroscope à vision directe (authorship of which is unduly attributed to Giovanni-Battista Amici, 1786–1863). Three other variants of the “two-telescopic” spectroscope constructed in 1850s by Francesco Zantedeschi (1797–1873), Moritz Meyerstein (1808–1882) and William Crookes (1832–1919) are also discussed. The apparatus of the latter scholar (the so-called spectrum camera) may be regarded as a prototype of the first spectrograph. In the last part of the paper we raise the following question: how can we explain the fact that certain instruments, normally used in surveying (theodolites, repeating circles), often modified, were used in the scientific refractometric/spectroscopic research in the first half of the XIXth century?

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1 Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU

1 RODZEŃ J.

1 2012

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Nie wszystko zaczęło się od Bunsena i Kirchhoffa – nieznane wątki wczesnej historii spektroskopu optycznego (1810–1860)