Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824 in Königsberg, Prussia to 1887) and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811 in Gottingen to 1899 shown at left) invented a spectroscope to systematically study the effects of elements on flame color. In 1859, they found each element has spectral lines not effected by the presence of other elements. Their spectroscope combined a prism with a telescope. Different colors of light are separated so their colors and intensities can be studied.
Spectral analysis proved to be a very productive tool for discovering elements present in only trace amounts. Robert Bunsen found two new elements, one he named Cesium for its blue spectral line, and the second named Rubidium for its red spectral line. Caesius is Latin for sky blue. Rubidius is Latin for deepest red.
Sir William Crookes (shown at right) discovered Thallium. In 1863 F.Reich and H.T.Richter discovered an element with an indigo spectral line which he named Indium. Thallos is Greek for green shoot or twig. Indigo is a violet-blue dye made from pea plants.
The advent of the spectroscope accelerated the discovery of both very reactive and thus difficult to separate elements as well as the non-reactive rare earths.
| introduction | Greeks | alchemy | Lavoisier | Dalton | Berzelius | molecules | ↑ | electron | radiation | Bohr | isotopes | synthesis |
| to site menu | Discovery and Naming of Chemical Elements |
chemistry | physics | |||||||||
| created 23 March 2002; additions 24 March latest revision 4 November 2006 |
by D Trapp |  |
||||||||||