The New International Encyclopædia/Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert

KIRCHHOFF, (1824-87). A German physicist, born at Königsberg. He studied natural philosophy and mathematics at the University of Königsberg. In 1850 he became professor of physics at Breslau, in 1854 at Heidelberg, and from 1875 until his death filled the chair of physics at the University of Berlin. His researches in thermodynamics and in several other branches of physical science have been of great value; but his principal achievement is the discovery, jointly with Bunsen, of the spectroscope. The discovery was perfected in 1859, and was published under the title, Untersuchnngen über das Sonnenspektrum und die Spektren der chemischen Elemente. Kirchhoff's Gesammelte Abhandlungen were published in 1882 and 1891.