Abstract
PROF. A. FOWLER, who, at the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on May 11, was presented by Dr. Edwin Hubble with the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, is the doyen of English-speaking spectroscopists. So long ago as 1885, he became attached to the Solar Physics Observatory at the Royal College of Science under the late Sir Norman Lockyer, with whom he remained until 1901 when, on Lockyer's retirement, he was given the charge of the astrophysical work of the College. The intimate experience he acquired of the practical aspects of spectroscopy—a subject much more specialised then than now—was turned to good account, and his share with Lockyer in recognising the existence and importance of ‘enhanced’ lines (the basis of modern ionisation theory) was rapidly followed by the attribution of the M-type stellar absorption bands to TiO and the ‘comet-tail’ bands to low pressure CO, the identification of many solar spectrum lines with bands of water vapour and magnesium hydride, and other astronomical work of the first importance.
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Prof A. Fowler, F.R.S. Nature 133, 751 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133751a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133751a0