Editing Charles Wheatstone (section)

== Spectroscopy ==
Wheatstone and others also contributed to early [[spectroscopy]] through the discovery and exploitation of spectral emission lines.<ref>{{cite book
 | title = Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS: 1802–1875
 | edition = 2nd
 | author = Brian Bowers
 | publisher = IET
 | year = 2001
 | isbn = 978-0-85296-103-2
 | pages = 207–208
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=m65tKWiI-MkC&pg=PA208
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | title = The Art of Scientific Discovery: Or, The General Conditions and Methods of Research in Physics and Chemistry
 | author = George Gore
 | publisher = Longmans, Green, and Co
 | year = 1878
 | page = 179
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=We0EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA179
 | author-link = George Gore (electrochemist)
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wheatstone |title=Report of the Fifth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Held at Dublin in 1835. Notices and Abstracts of Communications to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Dublin Meeting, August 1835. |date=1836 |publisher=John Murray |location=London, England |pages=11–12 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLtZAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA11 |chapter=On the prismatic decomposition of electrical light}}</ref>

As John Munro wrote in 1891, "In 1835, at the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Wheatstone showed that when metals were volatilised in the electric spark, their light, examined through a prism, revealed certain rays which were characteristic of them. Thus the kind of metals which formed the sparking points could be determined by analysing the light of the spark. This suggestion has been of great service in spectrum analysis, and as applied by [[Robert Bunsen]], [[Gustav Robert Kirchhoff]], and others, has led to the discovery of several new elements, such as [[rubidium]] and [[thallium]], as well as increasing our knowledge of the heavenly bodies."<ref>{{cite book
 | title = Heroes of the telegraph
 | author = John Munro
 | publisher = The Religious tract society
 | year = 1891
 | page = 30
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lM4LAAAAYAAJ&q=%22suggestion+has+been+of+great+service+in+spectrum+analysis%22&pg=PA30
 }}</ref>