Robert Bunsen inventions picture: Scientists use Bunsen burners to test fire-retarding chemicals, for a gallery tied to the Google doodle for Bunsen's 200th birthday
Robert Bunsen inventions picture: a blast furnace in Bulgaria, for a gallery tied to a Google doodle for Bunsen's 200th birthday
Robert Bunsen inventions picture: radioactive cesium-137 containers, for a gallery tied to a Google doodle for Bunsen's 200th birthday
Robert Bunsen inventions picture: a spectroscope, for a gallery tied to a Google doodle for Bunsen's 200th birthday
Robert Bunsen inventions picture: a dry cell battery, for a gallery tied to a Google doodle for Bunsen's 200th birthday
Bunsen Burner and SpectroscopyPowered by a virtual Bunsen burner, Thursday's Google doodle celebrates the 200th birthday of Robert Bunsen. But the German chemist accomplished a lot more than perfecting the iconic little lab stoves (pictured in a file photo of men testing fire retardants).Bunsen's tweaking of the burner design—Bunsen-like burners existed before their namesake—turned out to be vital to a larger goal: helping to pioneer the field of spectral analysis, or spectroscopy.In spectral analysis, "every element sends out a specific color when heated with a flame," explained Bunsen scholar Christine Nawa."And only the Bunsen burner was able to create colorless, very hot flames, so that one could see the color of each element clearly," said Nawa, a visiting fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia.—Brian Handwerk
Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart, National Geographic

Robert Bunsen: Breakthroughs Bigger Than the Burner

A lab flame fuels Wednesday's Google doodle for Robert Bunsen's 200th birthday. But the chemist did much more than better his burner.

April 02, 2011

Related Topics

Go Further