I. On the spectra of the compounds of carbon with hydrogen and nitrogen

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Abstract
In a memoir “On the Spectra of Metalloids” (“Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Upsal.,” ser. iii, vol. ix), Ångström and Thalèn have made a careful analysis of the different spectra assigned to carbon. They distinguish four sets of groups of shaded bands produced under different circumstances, which they define, besides the line spectrum which they ascribe to carbon itself. Of these four sets of bands, two sets, situated at the extremities of the spectrum, they show to be produced in the combustion of cyanogen, a third to be common to all the hydrocarbons, and the fourth to be produced by carbonic oxide. The first two sets, the third, and the fourth sets respectively, they observed to be produced also in the electric discharge between carbon electrodes according as it took place in nitrogen, hydrogen, or oxygen. Their observations on this subject appear to us almost conclusive. Nevertheless, other observers have, since their publication, maintained different opinions. The spectrum of hydrocarbons burning in air has been repeatedly described: first by Swan in 1856, and afterwards by Attfield, Watts, Morren, Plücker, Boisbaudran and others, and has been given in detail by Piazzi Smyth (“End on Illumination in Private Spectroscopy”). The characteristic part of this spectrum consists of four groups of bands of fine lines in the orange, yellow, green, and blue respectively, and we refer hereafter to these as the hydrocarbon bands. These four groups, according to Plücker and Hittorf, also constitute the spectrum of the discharge of an induction coil in an atmosphere of hydrogen between carbon electrodes. They are also conspicuous in the electric discharge in olefiant gas at the atmospheric and at reduced pressures.

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