Bunsen-Kirchoff spectroscope

Figure 6 Kirchoff and Bunsen s spectroscope (A) a tx)x, blackened interior (B) and (C) small telescopes, (B) contains a metal sheet with slit, replacing the eye-piece (D) light source in front of the slit, Bunsen burner and (E) platinum wire for holding material to be examined (F) a hollow glass prism filled with carbon disulfide (G) tumable mirror. (From Kirchoff and Bunsen (1860) Poggendorfs Annalen 110 160.)...

L. rubidus, deepest red) Discovered in 1861 by Bunsen and Kirchoff in the mineral lepidolite by use of the spectroscope. 

Rubidium was discovered ia 1861 by Bunsen and Kirchoff by means of an optical spectroscope. It was named for the prominent red lines ia its spectmm, from the Latin word rubidus meaning darkest red. Bunsen prepared free mbidium duriag the same year by an electrolytic method. After cesium, mbidium is the second most electropositive and alkaline element. The two isotopes of natural mbidium are Rb [13982-12-1] (72.15%) and Rb [13982-13-3] (27.85%). The latter is a beta-emitter having a half-life of 4.9 x 10 ° yr. Twenty-four isotopes of mbidium are known. 

Cesium, first discovered by Bunsen and Kirchoff ia 1860 while examining spring water, was the first element discovered spectroscopically (1). The name, comes from the Latin caesius, sky blue, and refers to the characteristic blue spectral lines of the element. Cesium salts were not successfully reduced to metal until 1881. Electrolysis of the molten chloride did not yield cesium metal under the same conditions that led to the reduction of the other alkaU metal chlorides. 

Bunsen was extremely famous in his own time and revered by his students for his part in the development of the technique of spectral analysis numerous other elements were later discovered by chemists using Bunsen and Kirchoff s spectroscope. Those elements include gal-... 

Armed with the empirical knowledge that each element in the periodic table has a characteristic spectmm, and that heating materials to a sufficiently high temperature dismpts all interatomic interactions, Bunsen and Kirchoff invented the spectroscope, an instrument that atomizes substances in a flame and then records their emission spectmm. Using this instmment, the elemental composition of several compounds and minerals were deduced by measuring the wavelength of radiation that they emit. In addition, this new science led to the discovery of elements, notably caesium and mbidium. 

Rubidium was first discovered in 1861 by two German chemists, R.W. Bunsen and G. Kirchoff, at the University of Heidelberg, who identified the new element in the lithium mineral lepi-dolite using the spectroscope. Later, the pure metal was prepared in 1928 by Hackspill. 

Rubidium Rb 37 85.47 1861 R. W. Bunsen (Ge.) G. Kirchoff (Ge.) L. rubidius, dark red (discovered with the spectroscope, its spectrum shows red lines)... 

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