The Theory of Spectra and Atomic Constitution Three Essays (Classic Reprint)

TlHE three essays which here appear in English all deal with J- the application of the quantum theory to problems of atomic structure, and refer to the different stages in the development of this theory. The first essay On the spectrum of hydrogen1 is a translation of a Danish address given before the Physical Society of Copenhagen on the 20th of December 1913, and printed in Fysisk Tidsrkrift, XII. p. 97, 1914. Although this address was delivered at a tinif when the formal development of the quaritiia theory was only at its beginning, the reader will find the general tread of thought very similar to that expressed in the later addresses, which form the other two essays. As emphasizr-d at several points the theory does not attempt an explanation in the usual sense of this word, but only the establishment of a connection between facts which in the present state of science are unexplained, that is to say the usual physical conceptions do not offer sufficient basis for a detailed description. The second essay On the series spectra of the elements is a translation of a German address given before the Physical Society of Berlin on the 27th of A pril 1920, and printed in Zeitschrift filr Physik, VI. p. 423, 1920. This address falls into two main parts. The considerations in the first part are closely related to the contents of the first essay; especially no use is made of the new formal conceptions established through the later development of the quantum theory. The second part contains a survey of the results reached by this development. An attempt is made to elucidate the problems by means of a general principle which postulates a formal correspondence between the fundamentally different conceptions of the classical electrodynamics and those of the quantum theory.
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