Fraunhofer lines

“ Wollaston, but were multiplied and investigated with profound skill by Fraunhofer, and named after him Fraunhofer's lines. They had been long a standing puzzle to philosophers. The bright lines yielded by metallic vapours had been also known to us for years; but the connection between both classes of phenomena was wholly unknown, until Kirchhoff, with admirable acuteness, revealed the secret, and placed it at the same time in our power to chemically analyse the sun. ”

“ Hitherto we have been delighted by objects which addressed themselves as much to our aesthetic taste as to our scientific faculty; we have ridden pleasantly to the base of the final cone of Etna, and must now dismount and march through ashes and lava, if we would enjoy the prospect from the summit. Our problem is to connect the dark lines of Fraunhofer with the bright ones of the metals. The white beam of the lamp is refracted in passing through our two prisms, but its different components are refracted in different degrees, and thus its colours are drawn apart. ”

“ Are we to have a Pope of science, with infallible decrees laid down ex cathedra, and accepted without question by the poor humble public? I tell you, sir, that I have a brain of my own and that I should feel myself to be a snob and a slave if I did not use it. If it pleases you to believe this rigmarole about ether and Fraunhofer's lines upon the spectrum, do so by all means, but do not ask one who is older and wiser than yourself to share in your folly. ”

“ Strange and startling as is such an explanation, yet scientific men will remember that when we {571} knew as little about the cause of the black lines seen in the spectrum of the sun as we now know about these appearances on the sun itself, Sir John Herschel suggested, in 1833, that very explanation which was the foundation of the memorable law announced by the German philosopher, Kirchhoff, in 1859—a law now universally accepted as affording a perfect solution to the long-standing puzzle of Fraunhofer's lines. ”

“ Sir,—I have read with amusement, not wholly unmixed with some less complimentary emotion, the complacent and wholly fatuous letter of James Wilson MacPhail which has lately appeared in your columns upon the subject of the blurring of Fraunhofer's lines in the spectra both of the planets and of the fixed stars. He dismisses the matter as of no significance. To a wider intelligence it may well seem of very great possible importance—so great as to involve the ultimate welfare of every man, woman, and child upon this planet. ”

“ It was during the year 1814 that he measured and described the innumerable dark lines of the solar spectrum known as Fraunhofer’s lines, which were first noticed by Wollaston and reported upon by the latter to the Royal Society in 1802.
References.—M. Merz, “Das Leben und Wirken Fraunhofers,” Landshut, 1865; Ninth “Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. IX. p. 727; “Abh. der K. Bayer, Akad. d. Wiss.” for 1814 and 1815; Fraunhofer’s biography in the “Memoirs of the Astronomical Society of London,” Vol. III. p. 117; his “Determination ...” München, 1819; Whewell, “Hist. of Ind. Sci.,” 1859, Vol. II. p. 475; Sci. ”

“ The introduction of the electric spark for the purpose of volatilizing metals was an important step in the development of spectral [433] analysis, but although used by both Wollaston and Fraunhofer its true value in that particular line was not realized for many years after their time.
Fraunhofer is not only celebrated as one of the founders of spectrum analysis, but he is well known also as the inventor of many important philosophical instruments, being the constructor of the great Dorpat parallactic telescope, called by Struve the giant refractor. ”

“ In 1806 he obtained the place of optician in the mathematical institute which in 1804 had been founded at Munich by Joseph von Utzschneider, G. Reichenbach and J. Liebherr; and in 1807 arrangements were made by Utzschneider for his instruction by Pierre Louis Guinand, a skilled optician, in the fabrication of flint and crown glass, in which he soon became an adept (see R. Wolf, Gesch. der Wissensch. in Deutschl. bd. xvi. p. 586) . With Reichenbach and Utzschneider, Fraunhofer established in 1809 an optical institute at Benedictbeuern, near Munich, of which he in 1818 became sole manager. ”

“ Those who can not understand or do not accept the argument that science will ultimately control human conduct must be convinced by the brute argument of accomplished fact that science is essential to national efficiency. Germany, against superior numbers, advances its lines in Poland and Russia and holds them in Flanders and France, it adjusts the nation to be self supporting and self-sufficient, because it has a better organization of science than the other nations. ”

“ The diffraction-phenomenon of two slits proved to be considerably different from what Fraunhofer had anticipated, and in following up this circumstance he was led to the important discovery of grating-spectra. Faraday's induction-phenomenon departed widely from the initial conception which occasioned his experiments, and it is precisely this deviation that constitutes his real discovery.
Every man has pondered on some subject. Every one of us can multiply the examples cited, by less illustrious ones from his own experience. ”

“ In Germany the case was still worse. The most renowned firm there, the successors of Fraunhofer, were not anxious to undertake such a contract. The outcome of the matter was that Howard Grubb, of Dublin, was the only man abroad with whom negotiations could be opened with any chance of success. He was evidently a genius who meant business. Yet he had not produced a work which would justify unlimited confidence in his ability to meet Mr. Lick's requirements. The great Vienna telescope which he afterward constructed was then only being projected. ”

“ The grey light of morning was stealing over the moor, and still the fight was undecided. The fog hung about us in feathery streaks, and the smoke from our guns drifted across in a dun-coloured cloud, through which the long lines of red coats upon the other side of the rhine loomed up like a battalion of giants. My eyes ached and my lips prinkled with the smack of the powder. On every side of me men were falling fast, for the increased light had improved the aim of the soldiers. ”

“ Persons who clamor for governmental control of American railways should visit Germany, and above all Russia, to see how such control results. In Germany its defects are evident enough; people are made to travel in carriages which our main lines would not think of using, and with a lack of conveniences which with us would provoke a revolt; but the most amazing thing about this administration in Russia is to see how, after all this vast expenditure, the whole atmosphere of the country seems to paralyze energy. ”

“ But alas! for plots and plans when love and youth and nature, and above all, fortune are arrayed against them. Who is this travel-stained youth who dares to ride so madly through the lines of staring burghers? Why does he fling himself from his horse and stare so strangely about him? See how he has rushed through the incense-bearers, thrust aside lay-sister Agatha, scattered the two-and-twenty damosels who sang so sweetly—and he stands before the novice with his hands out-stretched, and his face shining, and the light of love in his gray eyes. ”

“ Frankfort lies at the junction of lines of railway connecting it directly with all the important cities of south and central Germany. Here cross and unite the lines from Berlin to Basel, from Cologne to Würzburg and Vienna, from Hamburg and Cassel, and from Dresden and Leipzig to France and Switzerland. The river Main has been dredged so as to afford heavy barge traffic with the towns of the upper Main and with the Rhine, and cargo boats load and unload alongside its busy quays. ”

“ The Physical-Technical Institute will always stand as a memorial to the man who preached in Germany the doctrine of the closest co-operation between abstract science and the industries. Germany adopted it first; the United States adopted it many years later. Helmholtz and Siemens always represented to me the highest symbol of this co-operation.
Bismarck and Moltke, Helmholtz and Siemens, were the great power which the young German eagle had discovered in his pinions; and he flew as he had never flown before, and his flight astonished me when I was a student in Berlin. ”

“ Universities, with all institutions of research and education, have suffered from this blank. Technical leadership is gone, and the deterioration in quality has reacted detrimentally on output. We can now turn out nothing except what is cheap and easy, and what can be produced without traditional skill of hand, without serious calculation and research. For all innovations, all work of superior quality, Germany is dependent on the foreigner. The atmosphere of technique has vanished, and the stamp of cheap hireling labour is on the whole output of the country. ”

“ Critics there are in abundance, who declare that the process can never become a commercial one, that it will destroy short-distance Hertzian telegraphy, or that the multiplication of long-distance stations will end in the annihilation of all Hertzian wave telegraphy. No one, however, can contemplate the history of any development of applied science without seriously taking to heart the lesson that the obstacles which arise and which prove serious in any engineering undertaking are never those which occur to armchair critics. ”

“ Fradin had just about everything in his laboratory.
"Now," said Marvak to the little inventor, "you will please prove the truth of your assertion that power can be transmitted by radio."
That was the thing that Fradin had said. Power by radio! It doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you, it's plenty big. With it, science could come darned close to remaking the face of the globe.
How?
This is the power age. Practically all of our industrial achievements—and through them we have achieved what passes for civilization—have come about through cheap power. ”

“ Long steel-fringed lines of red and blue, sweeping waves of cavalry, horse batteries rattling and bounding—down they came on to our crumbling ranks. It was over. A yell of agony, the agony of brave men who see no hope, rose from one flank to the other, and in an instant the whole of that noble army was swept in a wild, terror-stricken crowd from the field. ”

“ The ultimate objective was factory-wide systems for Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) that would allow every operation of a company, from design to engineering to manufacturing, to be controlled by computer via a single data base. It was cheap, and it elevated quality control to a hundred percent. No doubt about it, he said, as Japan moved to automate manufacturing and get on with an information- industry future, these smart robots would be their secret weapon. ”

“ It was hardly wide enough for Johnny's Robot, it shook dangerously with the tread of metal feet. Here, Johnny knew, was the sanctuary. This was the Achilles Heel. This was the entrance, this ramp which no Robot could traverse. Here the way led to self-functioning, self-repairing machinery, to Central Intelligence. Here was man's final hope in the eyes of the original inventor. Here was the guarantee that the Robots, if they became some Frankenstein monster, could be met and conquered.
For no Robot could guard the final portal to Central Intelligence. ”

“ The two countries shall establish a Franco-German Council of Economic Experts, composed of ten independent experts in order to submit policy recommendations to their Governments.
Article 21 The two countries shall intensify their cooperation in the field of research and digital transformation, including in artificial intelligence and disruptive innovation. They will promote ethical guidelines for new technologies at the international level. They shall establish Franco-German initiatives to support innovations open to cooperation at European level. ”

“ It is that efficiency which has kept a large part of the world on the defensive for over three and a half years. Germany's military strategy is, in the main, her industrial strategy; it represents her efficiency in turning technology to the account of an imperial purpose.
But those organizations of manufacturers and business politicians who believe that the same schemes of efficiency will function in America will call upon the people after the war, it is safe to predict, to emulate the methods which have given Germany its untoward strength. ”

“ These duties lie in the domains of science and politics, and also in that borderland where science and politics touch, and where the latter is often directly conditioned by the results of scientific inquiry.
First and foremost it is German science which must regain its superiority in unwearying and brilliant research in order to vindicate our birthright. On the one hand, we must extend the theory of the perceptive faculty; on the other, we must increase man's dominion over Nature by exploring her hidden secrets, and thus make human work more useful and remunerative. ”

“ Even where men could have taken charge, automation was cheaper, more reliable, less risky of lives. The computer system housed in Central Control was not only the brain, but the nerves and heart of the Sword.
"Entirely cryotronic, eh?" Warburton commented. "That seems to be the usual practice at the Stations. Why?"
"The least expensive type for us," Blades answered. "There's no problem in maintaining liquid helium here."
Warburton's gaze was peculiarly intense. "Cryotronic systems are vulnerable to magnetic and radiation disturbances." ”