Abstract
THE numerous absorption spectra of soluble substances which have been described hitherto, have referred as a rule to the solutions of the substances, and but rarely to the solid substances themselves. It is true that certain differences were remarked between the spectra of certain solutions, those of uranium and didymium salts, for instance, and the spectra of the solid salts; yet, on the whole, these differences were so slight that it was generally believed that the spectra were essentially the same. On the other hand experiments had shown that the spectra of solutions differed according to the dissolving medium; indeed Herr Kvmdt established the fact that the absorption band of a substance in solution lies the nearer to the red end of the spectrum the stronger the dispersion of the dissolving medium. In these experiments the fact seems to have been overlooked that when changing the dissolving medium often the whole character of the spectrum is changed, so that comparison with the former one becomes extremely difficult. Close investigation of these differences was therefore an important desideratum, both for the theory of absorption spectra as well as for practical absorption spectrum analysis.
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Recent Researches on Absorption Spectra . Nature 19, 495 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019495a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019495a0