page_title: History of spectroscopy
hierarchical_section_title: History of spectroscopy
caption_attribution_description: English: Diagram of a dispersion prism. Español: Esquema de un prisma descomponedor de la luz blanca. Italiano: Schema di un prisma dispersore di luce bianca. Français&#160;: Schéma de la décomposition de la lumière blanche à travers un prisme.
context_page_description: The history of spectroscopy began in the 17th century. New designs in optics, specifically prisms, enabled systematic observations of the solar spectrum. Isaac Newton first applied the word spectrum to describe the rainbow of colors that combine to form white light. During the early 1800s, Joseph von Fraunhofer conducted experiments with dispersive spectrometers that enabled spectroscopy to become a more precise and quantitative scientific technique. Since then, spectroscopy has played and continues to play a significant role in chemistry, physics and astronomy. Fraunhofer observed and measured dark lines in the Sun's spectrum.
context_section_description: The history of spectroscopy began in the 17th century. New designs in optics, specifically prisms, enabled systematic observations of the solar spectrum. Isaac Newton first applied the word spectrum to describe the rainbow of colors that combine to form white light. During the early 1800s, Joseph von Fraunhofer conducted experiments with dispersive spectrometers that enabled spectroscopy to become a more precise and quantitative scientific technique. Since then, spectroscopy has played and continues to play a significant role in chemistry, physics and astronomy. Fraunhofer observed and measured dark lines in the Sun's spectrum (they bear now his name although several of them were observed earlier by Wollaston).
caption: Light separated into a spectrum by refraction through glass prism. Colour dispersion angles exaggerated for visualisation.
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