Abstract
New spectrographic observations have been made on the flashes of light appearing in burning iron flakes produced in a grinding wheel. By using slit-less grating spectrographs with a long collimator and short camera, well-defined low dispersion spectra have been obtained of individual flashes of light. From a study of carbon steel, several emission bands and lines have been found. In addition to the FeO bands observed before, bands of C2, CN, CH and N2 as well as a few ultraviolet Fe I atomic lines have been recorded. These emission features are superimposed with low contrast (except in the ultraviolet) on the continuous emission spectrum.Attention is drawn to earlier results that electric charges appear sometimes in burning particles, and particularly when a particle splits into two or more parts. The emission features seem therefore to be due, at least partly, to a tribo-induced discharge luminescence. Effects of similar kind may contribute to the light emission of meteors and comets and perhaps also to the light of some other celestial objects.
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