Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm rubidium discovered

Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm. (1811-1899). Bom in Germany, Bunsen is remembered chiefly for his invention of the laboratory burner named after him. He engaged in a wide range of industrial and chemical research, including blast-furnace firing, electrolytic cells, separation of metals by electric current, spectroscopic techniques (with Kirchhoff), and production of light metals by electrical decomposition of their molten chlorides. He also discovered two elements, rubidium and cesium. 

Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm (1811-99) German chemist, who held professorships at Kassel, Marburg, and Heidelberg. His early researches on arsenic-containing compounds cost him an eye in an explosion. He then turned to gas analysis and spectroscopy, enabling him and Kirchhoff to discover the elements caesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). He also popularized the use of the Bunsen burner. 

In the 1859 the chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and his younger colleague, the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff, discovered a surprising phenomenon of spectroscopy. The emission and absorption spectra of an element are identical. They thus put into place an ideal tool for the discovery and identification of elements. Indeed, they themselves discovered cesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). In total, at least 20 elements were found by using spectroscopic technigues (including X-ray spectroscopy). 

Rubidium - the atomic number is 37 and the chemical symbol is Rb. The name derives from the Latin rubidus for deepest red because of the two deep red lines in its spectra. It was discovered in the mineral lepidolite by the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and the German physicist Gustav-Robert Kirchoff in 1861. Bimsen isolated rubidium in 1863. 

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