Referee's report by Walter Noel Hartley, on a paper 'Flame spectra' by Charles de Watteville

Description

Sectional Committee: Physics and Chemistry

Not recommended for publication in Philosophical Transactions. With certain modification it ought to appear in the Proceedings.

Provides a manuscript report in which he concludes that the paper is of much interest. Notes the first paragraph should be omitted since it gives only a partial account of the methods of obtaining flame spectra and is thus misleading. Lists references which may be mentioned and notes the author is not acquainted with the various papers published since 1894 on the subject of flame spectra and the banded spectra of metals. Discusses the prolonged exposure time used by Watteville in comparison to Hartley and Ramage's own experiments. Notes misattribution on the part of the author for the method of photographing the whole of the ultra-violet and visible spectrum, and the first observations on the modification of the spark spectra caused by heating electrodes. The part of the paper headed 'conclusions', does not in fact contain conclusions but is simply a discussion of observations made by the author.

The most interesting part of the spectra which the author has photographed is that part which he has over exposed and does not describe, namely the banded-portion where the swan carbon spectrum appears. Pursuing this work with Watteville's apparatus and some few modifications in the mode of experimenting, Hartley thinks the author might be able to show the relationship of the line spectrum to the banded spectrum of the same element.

[Published in Philosophical Transactions A, 1905].

Endorsed on verso as received 13 June 1904.

Reference number

RR/16/237

Earliest possible date

13 June 1904

Physical description

Standardised form (type A) and minute paper

Page extent

8 pages

Format

Manuscript