ABSTRACT
It was not until 1859, when Kirchhoff and Bunsen
speculated that the sharp line spectra from flames when
burning salts were originated from atoms and not from
molecules, that the nature of emission spectra began to
be understood. Much of their work was made possible
by Bunsen’s invention of a burner (which still carries his
name today), which can produce a nearly transparent and
nonluminescent flame. In the following years, Kirchhoff
and Bunsen developed methods based on spectroscopy
that led to the eventual discovery of four elements, Cs,
Rb, Tl, and In. From then on, the presence of sharp spectral
lines, unobserved earlier, was the proof that scientists
required for the verification of the discovery of a new
element. All these facts led to these two scientists being
called the pioneers of spectrochemical analysis.
