April and May Historical Events In Spectroscopy

by Leopold May, Catholic University

• April 1, 1972 Julian Stone reported in Applied Physics Letters on new type of fiber made of quartz & filled with tetrachloroethylene that may be able to carry light.
• April 7, 1795 A new law established the metric decimal system in France on this day.
• April 10, 1900 Arnold O. Beckman who invented the Beckman DU Spectrophotometer with Cary was born on this day. He founded Beckman Instruments in 1934.
• April 13, 1872 - This is the birthday of Georges Urbain who discovered the law of optimum phosphorescence of binary systems with K. Auer von Weisbach.
• April 21, 1774 - The discoverer of optical activity, Jean-Bapiste Biot, was born on this day.
• April 22, 1958 - Max K. E. L. Planck, who was born on this day, introduced the quantum theory in 1900. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
• April 25, 1900 - Wolfgang Pauli discovered the exclusion principle and received the Nobel prize in Physics in 1945. He was born on this day.
• April 30, 1897 - On this day, Joseph J. Thomson announced the discovery of the electron as a body smaller than and a constituent of the atom.
• May 5, 1811 - John W. Draper, a pioneer in photography who improved on Daguerre's process, was born on this day. He served as the first president of the American Chemical Society.
• May 6, 1859 - Julius B. Cohen, born on this day, did research on optical activity.
• May 10, 1860 - Robert Bunsen and Gustav R. Kirchhoff announced the discovery of cesium using flame spectroscopy on this day.
• May 17, 1836 - Joseph N. Lockyer, who was born on this day, discovered helium in the solar spectrum.
• May 24, 1686 - This is the birthday of Gabriel D. Fahrenheit who improved thermometers by using mercury in 1720 and invented the Fahrenheit temperature scale.
• May 25, 1865 - Pieter Zeeman, who showed that magnetic fields split spectral lines, was born on this day. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Henrik A. Lorentz in 1902.
  

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