CH. xxxiii. FRAUNHOFEKS DISCOVERIES. 319 



than point out the existence of these lines ; but in 1814 

 Fraimhofer, a German optician, who had heard nothing of 

 Wollaston's experiment, discovered them over again inde- 

 pendently, and learnt more about them. 



Fraunhofer, 1787-1826. Joseph Fraunhofer, the son 

 of a glazier, was born in 1787, at Straubing, in Bavaria. 

 Being left an orphan when quite young, he was apprenticed 

 to a glass manufacturer, who kept him hard at work all day. 

 But he longed so much for knowledge that he borrowed 

 some old books and spent his nights in learning. In the 

 year 1801 the house in which he lived fell down one night 

 and killed all the people in it except young Fraunhofer, 

 and his cries being heard by the people outside, they set to 

 work to try and release him. It happened that Maximilian 

 Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, came to see the accident, and 

 he encouraged the workmen so much, that in four hours the 

 young man was dug out, wounded, but alive. The Elector 

 was so much interested in this narrow escape, that he gave 

 Fraunhofer eighteen ducats, and the lad used the money to 

 buy himself off from his apprenticeship in order to have 

 some free time for study. After this he lived by polishing 

 lenses, and he worked so well that he soon became the 

 master of a business, and was able to spend his spare time 

 in the study of Physics and Astronomy, which he loved pas- 

 sionately. Finally he became manager of the physical 

 laboratory of an academy in the town of Benedictbaiern, 

 near Munich. 



Fraunhofer's Discoveries about the Spectrum, 1814. 

 From having been constantly at work as an optician, Fraun- 

 hofer had been led to study the subject of light, and among 

 other experiments he repeated those of Newton; and it hap- 

 pened that he too used a narrow slit, as Wollaston had done. 



