The first person to use a prism to examine the light from colored flames was a young Scot named Thomas Melvill. He announced his results in a paper read before a philosophical society in Edinburgh early in 1752, less than two years before his death at the early age of twenty-seven. This paper, which was not published until 1756, is so rare that it seems desirable to reproduce a portion of it in facsimile in celebration of the 200th anniversary of its reading.
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© 1952 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1952
American Association of Physics Teachers
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