Abstract
THE discovery of Sir Norman Lockyer's which stands out as one of the most romantic events in the history of science is that of helium. In 1866, Lockyer suggested that, with large enough dispersion, it should be possible to observe solar prominences in full daylight without waiting for the sun to be obscured in a total eclipse. Two years later, he became possessed of a spectroscope of sufficient power to make this observation, and he then noticed a strange yellow line in the spectra of solar prominences. This was at first supposed to be due to hydrogen, but experiments failed to confirm this opinion. After satisfying himself that the line could not be produced by any element then known on the earth, Sir Norman Lockyer called the unknown substance ‘helium’. Not until twenty-seven years later was terrestrial helium extracted from cleveite by Sir William Ramsay, and since then it has proved to be one of the most interesting elements in both pure and applied science. For an element first discovered by an astronomer to prove in the course of time to have so many scientific and industrial contacts is a reward which few investigators can hope to obtain, and a tribute to an achievement which occupies a leading position in the archives of science.
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Helium. Nature 137, 809 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137809b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137809b0