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

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

GFF 11/34

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.

RDS Library & Archives GFF collection of letters

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RDS Science Archive

Manuscript

English

1870-1901