ABSTRACT
Dr. Neils Bohr, of Copenhagen, looks from the point of view of the optical spectra, taking hydrogen and helium as affording the simplest types of atom to study. Bohr's theory, it is seen, involves the quantum theory that under the influence of a strong magnetic field the single spectrum lines break up into various constituents. Similarly, in an electrostatic field the lines are separated into such constituents, this latter separation being the Stark effect. According to Sommerfeld, in studying the hydrogen and helium lines which exhibit a fine-line structure with constituents, after the manner of the Zeeman and Stark effects, has been able to account for this complexity of the lines, which is observed without the introduction of special magnetic or electrostatic fields. Bohr suggested that a relativity effect might exist due to the variation of mass of the electron with its velocity component, which would give rise to a separation, as observed in the case of hydrogen and helium.
