Agnes Giberne on Joseph von Fraunhofer

“Whether Newton saw the lines or not, he seems to have paid no especial heed to them. In the year 1802, Dr. W. H. Wollaston using, a slit one-twentieth of an inch in width, noted at least four fine dark lines crossing the solar spectrum. Supposing them to be merely 'natural boundaries' of the different colour-bands, he too inquired no further; and there still for a while the matter rested. Nobody yet suspected, even vaguely, what great future results lay enfolded in the casual discovery of these few slight lines. Not many years later the matter was taken up by Fraunhofer, an able German optician.”

“He must have been working quietly at the problem through years of European war and tumult. Crowned heads rose and fell; and nations changed hands; and tyrants were cast down; and brave men died by thousands for their countries; whilst Fraunhofer, in the midst of national seethings, calmly investigated the nature of black lines in sunlight.”

“With patience he went into the question, using the telescope as well as a very narrow slit... Close examination was rewarded by the making out of lines upon lines; till in the year 1814, that which witnessed the downfall of Napoleon and his banishment to Elba, Fraunhofer had mapped three or four hundred.”

“Fraunhofer made a great many experiments connected with these mysterious lines, anxious to discover, if possible, their meaning, For although he now saw the lines, which had scarcely so much as been seen before, he could not understand them; he could not read what they said. They spoke to him, indeed, about the Sun, but they spoke in a foreign language, the key to which he did not possess.”