Kids Research Express

Some elements have been known since antiquity. Gold ornaments from the Neolithic period have been discovered. Gold, iron, copper, lead, silver, and tin were used in Egypt and Mesopotamia before 3000 B.C. However, recognition of these metals as chemical elements did not occur until modern times. Greek Concept of the Elements The Greek philosophers proposed that there are basic substances from which all things are made. Empedocles proposed four basic "roots," earth, air, fire, and water, and two forces, harmony and discord, joining and separating them. Plato called the roots stoicheia (elements). He thought that they assume geometric forms and are made up of some more basic but undefined matter. A different theory, that of Leucippus and his followers, held that all matter is made up of tiny indivisible particles (atomos). This theory was rejected by Aristotle, who expanded on Plato's theory. Aristotle believed that different forms (eidos) were assumed by a basic material...

Spectroscope, optical instrument for producing spectral lines and measuring their wavelengths and intensities, used in spectral analysis (see spectrum ). When a material is heated to incandescence it emits light that is characteristic of the atomic makeup of the material. In the original spectroscope design in the early 19th cent., light entered a slit and a collimating lens transformed the light into a thin beam of parallel rays. A prism then separated the beam into its spectrum. The observer then viewed the spectrum through a tube with a scale that was transposed up the spectrum image, enabling its direct measurement. With the development of photographic film, the more accurate spectrograph was developed. It was based on the same principle as the spectroscope, but it had a camera in place of the telescope. In recent years the electronic circuits built around the photomultiplier tube have replaced the camera, allowing real-time spectrographic analysis of far greater accuracy. Such spe...