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I read with great interest the text of the five papers (1) that were presented at the annual James L. Waters Symposium at the 1999 Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy. The authors of the first two of these papers, Richard F. Jarrell (1a) and Gary M. Hieftje (1b) both give brief histories of spectrum analysis. As is so often the case, credit for the discovery of spectrum analysis is given to Kirchhoff and Bunsen. Jarrell (1a), for example, states, “Emission spectrochemical analysis dates from the work of the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff and his collaborator, the German chemist Robert Bunsen.” For the interested reader, Kirchhoff and Bunsen’s original paper (2) is available in English translation (3). There is considerable evidence that spectrum analysis actually had its origin in western Pennsylvania. In 1854, Dr. David Alter, a physician from Freeport, Pennsylvania, published his work entitled, “On Certain Physical Properties of Light Produced by the Combustion of Different Metals in an Electric Spark Refracted by a Prism” (4). He published a chart of the colored lines or bands of twelve metals and paved the way for spectrum analysis by demonstrating that the spectral lines of brass corresponded to those of copper and zinc. Six months later, he extended his work to include spectra of six gases (including the heretofore unknown Balmer lines of hydrogen) (5). It wasn’t until 1860 that Kirchoff and Bunsen published their work in which they recorded spectra of two alkali metals and six alkaline earth metals, and showed the presence of many of these elements in a variety of naturally occurring materials. Kirchhoff and Bunsen make no mention of Alter’s prior work in their publications. Hodge (6), however, points out that Alter’s work was “noted at least six times by scientific publications in France, Germany, and Switzerland between 1854 and 1859” (7). Hodge, in his paper “David Alter and other Spectroscopists in Western Pennsylvania” (6) concludes that Alter’s life “somehow reminds one of a couplet in Gray’s Elegy
in a Country Churchyard: full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
Needless to say, those of us in western Pennsylvania are quite proud of the contributions of David Alter. This letter is not in any way meant to minimize the importance of the excellent and often referenced work of Kirchhoff and Bunsen. Literature Cited- (a) Jarrell, R. F. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 573–576; (b) Hieftje, G. M. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 577–583; (c) Greenfield, S. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 584–591; (d) Jarrell, R. F.; Brech, F.; Gustafson, M. J. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 592–598; (e) Houk, R. S. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 598–607.
- Kirchhoff, G. R.; Bunsen, R. Ann. Phys. 1860, 110, 160.
- The Laws of Radiation and Absorption: Memoirs by Prévost, Stewart, Kirchhoff, and Kirchhoff and Bunsen; Brace, D. B., Ed. and translator; American Book Company: New York, 1901, 100–125.
- Alter, D. Am. J. Sci. Arts 1854, 18, 55–57.
- Alter, D. Am. J. Sci. Arts 1855, 19, 213–214.
- Hodge, E. S. Applied Optics 1976, 15, 1722–1725.
- See for example, Liebig and Kopp, Jahresber. Chem, 1854, 118; 1855, 107; L’Institut, Paris 1855, 156; and Ann. Sci. Phys. Nat. 1856, 151.
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