4 - ‘A sudden impulse …’

Summary

… news reached me of Kirchhoff's great discovery…

– William Huggins

It has long been accepted by historians of astronomy that William Huggins underwent a dramatic change in his research interests and methods in the early 1860s. And no wonder, for he has told us so himself in ‘The new astronomy’:

I soon became a little dissatisfied with the routine character of ordinary astronomical work, and in a vague way sought about in my mind for the possibility of research upon the heavens in a new direction or by new methods. It was just at this time … that the news reached me of Kirchhoff's great discovery of the true nature and the chemical constitution of the sun from his interpretation of the Fraunhofer lines.

This news was to me like the coming upon a spring of water in a dry and thirsty land. Here at last presented itself the very order of work for which in an indefinite way I was looking – namely, to extend his novel methods of research upon the sun to the other heavenly bodies. A feeling as of inspiration seized me: I felt as if I had it now in my power to lift a veil which had never before been lifted; as if a key had been put into my hands which would unlock a door which had been regarded as for ever closed to man – the veil and the door behind which lay the unknown mystery of the true nature of the heavenly bodies.