M. Arnaud De Gramont

Abstract

BY the death of Arnaud de Gramont on October 31 last, at the age of sixty-two years, spectroscopy has suffered a loss which it can ill afford. The chief feature of M. de Gramont's work was the investigation of the best means of producing spectra of various types and of the characteristics of the spectra yielded by substances under different modes of excitation. In this somewhat restricted but extremely important department of spectroscopy, he probably achieved more than any other single worker. His earliest efforts were devoted to synthetic chemistry and pyroelectricity, but he soon turned his attention to the subject with which his name is always associated. Spark spectra were the subject of most of his researches, and he early succeeded in devising a method of producing the spark spectrum of a liquid, uncontaminated by the lines of the metallic electrodes employed. Following the work of Schuster and Hemsalech on the effect of self-induction on the spectrum of an electric spark, de Gramont pursued the subject still further, particularly with regard to the spectra of compounds-the so-called “dissociation spectra.” He gave great attention to the spectroscopic examination of minerals, embodying the results of his investigations in a very valuable book on the subject.