| Victor Schumann | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1841 Leipzig |
| Died | September 1, 1913 |
| Fields | Physics |
| Known for | Discovered the vacuum ultraviolet |
Victor Schumann (1841 – September 1, 1913) was a physicist and spectroscopist who in 1893 discovered the vacuum ultraviolet.
Schumann wished to study the "Extreme Ultraviolet" region. For this, he used a prism and lenses in fluorite instead of quartz [1] allowing himself to be the first to measure spectra below 200 nm. Oxygen gas would absorb the radiation with a wavelength below 195 nm but Schumann placed the entire apparatus under vacuum. He prepared his own photographic plates with a reduced layer of gelatin.
He published on the Hydrogen line in the spectrum of Nova Aurigae and in the spectrum of vacuum tubes. [2]
His work opened the way to atomic emission spectroscopy, leading eventually to the discovery of the hydrogen spectral lines series (Lyman series) by Theodore Lyman in 1914.[1]