Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/259

 position is well marked and determined, no matter from what source we obtain our beam of sunlight. Whether the spectrum be produced from the sun itself, or from the reflected light proceeding from the moon or planets, they are still found in the same place; only that in the latter case they are not so numerous, on account of the light being much fainter. For many years the cause of these lines remained a complete mystery, and it was not until Bunsen and Kirchhoff undertook their investigation that a satisfactory explanation of their origin was arrived at. In order to explain this, we must consider briefly the properties of the spectra of flames, and other luminous bodies.

If, instead of the light of the sun, we examine prismatically the light given off by an incandescent body, such as a white-hot piece of platinum, we shall find that the lines seen in the solar spectrum are absent, and that we have a continuous band of coloured light quite uninterrupted by dark spaces or bands. The same absence of lines is seen in the spectra of the electric light and the flame of an ordinary candle, the light in each of these cases being produced by particles of carbon in a state of vivid incandescence. But if we examine the flame of incandescent gases, we shall find a spectrum of an entirely new kind. Thus if we examine an ordinary gaslight through a slit with a prism, we shall obtain a continuous spectrum, in consequence of the luminous portion of the flame consisting of solid carbon in a state of incandescence; but if we turn down the flame, so as to lessen the amount of carbon to be burned, we shall find the whole of that body is converted into feebly luminous gas, giving off a faint reddish blue light. If we now again examine it in the same manner, we shall find that the spectrum produced consists of black spaces, here and there crossed by a few faint coloured lines or bands. The reason of this is obvious: in the faint flame