![BECQUEREL, Henri. Autograph manuscript signed, two drafts for his essay "Spectres d'emission infra-rouges des vapeurs métalliques," [Paris, 1884]. Together 5¼ pages, 2o, lined paper, some light soiling. With: a large chart drawn in pencil by Becquerel of wavelengths of metallic vapors.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2002/NYR/2002_NYR_01174_0006_000(050401).jpg?w=1)
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BECQUEREL, Henri. Autograph manuscript signed, two drafts for his essay "Spectres d'emission infra-rouges des vapeurs métalliques," [Paris, 1884]. Together 5¼ pages, 2o, lined paper, some light soiling . With: a large chart drawn in pencil by Becquerel of wavelengths of metallic vapors.
BECQUEREL DRAFTS AN IMPORTANT EARLY PAPER ON INFRA-RED SPECTRA OF METALS
Prior to his discovery of radioactivity, Becquerel spent much of the 1880s on pioneering studies of the infra-red spectra, examining such substances as water, the atmosphere, rare metals and metallic vapors. The present group includes an early draft of 3 1/8 pages which includes a table of wavelengths of various metals, including potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminum, lead, silver and magnesium, followed by a paragraph with several corrections that discuss the results charted in the table. He notes: "In trying diverse phosphorescent substances, notably certain preparations of sulfide of calcium, I encountered some that were much more sensitive than others to infra-red radiations. These substances permitted me to directly determine the wavelengths of the most brilliant rays of certain incandescent metallic vapors, potassium... while projecting the diffraction spectra furnished by a very good metal diffraction grating of. M. Rutherford, who has been very obliging, loaned by M. Mascart..." Accompanying the draft is a 2-page final version of the opening of the paper and a large and complex graph painstakingly drawn in pencil and labelled "Longues d'onde des upres métalliques" (Wavelengths of metallic vapors). In the final draft, Becquerel writes, "By successive trials, one arrives at obtaining sufficiently clear images of the groups of rays that one proposes to study, but I am currently occupying myself with attaining a perfecting [that will avoid these trials] that will allow observations of an even great delicacy." The manuscript was published in vol. 99 of the Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Science, 1884, pp.374ff.
Becquerel's early and long-standing interest in optic phenomena was at least partly responsible for his subsequent investigations of radioactivity, as these stemmed from his learning in 1896 that the source of Röntgen's X-rays was the spot of florescence on the wall of the vacuum tube receiving the stream of cathode rays.
BECQUEREL DRAFTS AN IMPORTANT EARLY PAPER ON INFRA-RED SPECTRA OF METALS
Prior to his discovery of radioactivity, Becquerel spent much of the 1880s on pioneering studies of the infra-red spectra, examining such substances as water, the atmosphere, rare metals and metallic vapors. The present group includes an early draft of 3 1/8 pages which includes a table of wavelengths of various metals, including potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminum, lead, silver and magnesium, followed by a paragraph with several corrections that discuss the results charted in the table. He notes: "In trying diverse phosphorescent substances, notably certain preparations of sulfide of calcium, I encountered some that were much more sensitive than others to infra-red radiations. These substances permitted me to directly determine the wavelengths of the most brilliant rays of certain incandescent metallic vapors, potassium... while projecting the diffraction spectra furnished by a very good metal diffraction grating of. M. Rutherford, who has been very obliging, loaned by M. Mascart..." Accompanying the draft is a 2-page final version of the opening of the paper and a large and complex graph painstakingly drawn in pencil and labelled "Longues d'onde des upres métalliques" (Wavelengths of metallic vapors). In the final draft, Becquerel writes, "By successive trials, one arrives at obtaining sufficiently clear images of the groups of rays that one proposes to study, but I am currently occupying myself with attaining a perfecting [that will avoid these trials] that will allow observations of an even great delicacy." The manuscript was published in vol. 99 of the Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Science, 1884, pp.374ff.
Becquerel's early and long-standing interest in optic phenomena was at least partly responsible for his subsequent investigations of radioactivity, as these stemmed from his learning in 1896 that the source of Röntgen's X-rays was the spot of florescence on the wall of the vacuum tube receiving the stream of cathode rays.