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[Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Thomas Preston],

Title

[Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Thomas Preston],

Creator

Preston, Thomas, 1860-1900

Date

2 January 1898

Publisher

RDS Library & Archives

Identifier

GFF 11/34

Subject

Preston, Thomas, 1860-1900
Lorentz, H. A. (Hendrik Albertus), 1871-1944.
Fitzgerald, George Francis, 1851-1901. Correspondence
Royal University of Ireland.
Spectrum analysis.

Description

Handwritten letter from Thomas Preston to George F. Fitzgerald, dated 2 January 1898. Preston wrote from his home in Bardowie, Orwell Park, Rathgar, County Dublin. He thanks Fitzgerald for his letter and reference to a paper by Lorentz [Hendrik Albertus Lorentz, a Dutch physicist]. He writes that he is devoting his time to his experiment. He describes the results, which include the formation of “triplets” caused by vibrations that are equally free in all directions, and the formation of “doublets” and “quartets” when the vibrations are not equally free in all directions. He is observing them in line with Kayser and Runge’s series [Heinrich Kayser and Carl Runge were German physicists and spectroscopists]. He describes the photograph of the spectrum he has obtained through spectrometry experiments. He intends to carry out more experiments and wants “more current,” “more magnetic field,” and “more time.” He sends his regards to Fitzgerald, his wife and children. In a postscript, he invites Fitzgerald to visit and see the spectrum of Ca [Calcium] and Sr [Strontium] in his experiment. 6pp.

Source

RDS Library & Archives GFF collection of letters

Contributor

Preston, Thomas, 1860-1900
Fitzgerald, George Francis, 1851-1901. Correspondent
RDS Library & Archives

Rights

Copyright RDS Library & Archives. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the RDS Library & Archives.

Relation

RDS Science Archive

Format

Manuscript

Language

English

Type

Text

Coverage

1870-1901

Collection

George Francis Fitzgerald Letters

Citation

Preston, Thomas, 1860-1900, “[Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Thomas Preston],,” RDS Digital Archive, accessed June 23, 2025, https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/items/show/651.

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