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ARTHUR S
/
. KING
[anomaly 18, 1876-April 1 7, 1 95 7
BY ROBERT B. KING
ARTHUR SCOTT KING was born on January 18, 1876, in
Jerseyville, Illinois, and diecl in Pasadena, California,
on April 17, 1957. He was elected to the National Academy
of Sciences in 1940. His father, Robert Andrew King, born
in Missouri in 1830, was a clescenclant of Scottish-Irish from
Northern {relancI who settled in Virginia in the eighteenth
century and moved to Washington County, Missouri, in 1817.
Arthur's mother, Miriam Munson King, came from a New
Englanc! family that hac! emigrated from Lincolnshire, En-
gland, in the seventeenth century. Robert Andrew King stucI-
iecl law anti set up a successful practice in Union, Missouri.
He also server! in the Missouri state legislature. During the
Civil War, he moved his family to Jerseyville, Illinois, where
he served as circuit judge for southern Illinois, sitting in
Jerseyville. Arthur's older brother, Louis, was born in
Jerseyville.
Arthur was a rather frail boy and suffered from chronic
asthma brought on, his parents believed, by the clamp cli-
mate of southern Illinois. This was a major reason for the
family's move to California in 1883. They purchased a small
farm about five miles north of Santa Rosa, at the point
181
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
where Mark West Creek emerges from the hills into the
Santa Rosa plain.
Robert Andrew set up a law office in Santa Rosa, com-
muting by horse ant! buggy. The healthy California climate
was effective, ant! Arthur was never again troubled with
asthma; in fact, he was remarkably healthy the rest of his
long life. Around IS90 the family moved to Fresno, where
Arthur's father again set up an active law practice and Arthur
attendee] the public schools. During the latter part of the
nineteenth century, the great central valley of California
was rapidly becoming the state's agricultural heart and Fresno
the metropolis of the southern portion of the valley. A no-
table event in King's life here, and one that he liked to
recall in later years, was a pack trip with a group of Fresno
men and boys into the Kings River Canyon. At that time,
this was unclisturbed wiTct mountain country, now part of a
national park. He attended the Fresno public schools, graclu-
ated from Fresno High School in IS95, and was admitted! to
the University of California (then only one campus) at Ber-
keley. During his unclergracluate years at Berkeley, King be-
came interested! in science, especially physics, in which he
must have done well because on graduation in IS99, he was
acimittec! to the graduate school in physics.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, spectroscopy
was becoming a major field of research in physics. No ad-
equate theory yet existed to explain the lines observer! with
a spectrograph when elements were heater} by flame, arc,
or high-voltage spark. However, a great clear of ciata on mea-
surement of wavelengths ant! estimated relative intensities
of lines appearing in arc and spark spectra were being pub-
lished. King was intrigued by this, and, fortunately, his re-
search supervisor, Professor Percival Lewis, was interested
in spectroscopy. King's first paper, published in the Astro-
physicaliournal in 1901, was concerned with the structure of
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ARTHUR S. KING
183
the cyanogen bands (CN) as was his third paper (with Pro-
fessor Lewis) in 1902. King's final examination for'the Ph.D.
egree took place on May 8, 1903. His thesis was titled
"The Structure of Arc Spectra and Some Effects of Changes
in Physical Conditions." He was awarclecT his doctorate, the
first Ph.D. in physics given by the University of California,
which since then has probably proclucec3 more Ph.D.s in
physics than any other American university.
King was fortunate to receive a Whiting Fellowship for
study abroad. The size of the fellowship is not known, but it
was sufficient to enable him to spencl two years in the phys-
ics laboratories of the universities of Bonn and Berlin, then
the leaders in spectroscopic research, and to do consicler-
able traveling in Europe as well. The majority of his time
. . . .
was spent in the laboratory of the leading spectroscopist of
the time, Professor Heinrich Kayser, at Bonn. Kayser's
Handbuch der Spectroscopy, continually revised, was the pri-
mary source of ciata on wavelengths, estimated intensities,
ant! identification of the spectral lines of the elements. In
Kayser's laboratory King clesignecl and built his first electric
furnace for excitation of the spectra of metals. It was clear
to him that the furnace provider! a new range of controlled
excitation fitting with the existing sequence of spectroscopic
sources: flames, arc, and spark, between the flame ant! the
arc. His first paper on the electric furnace was published in
the Annalen der Physik in 1905.
King's primary interests were in the changes in the spec-
tra of the elements produced by different methods anti
degrees of excitation. At that time, excitation was pretty
well limited to the classic arc, spark, and flame sources. Of
course, these showed quite different sets of spectral lines,
which lee! to the distinction between spectra of neutral and
ionizer! atoms of the metals. Obviously, a source capable of
producing spectra under conditions of thermal equilibrium
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
with controllable temperatures would be highly desirable.
King returned to Berkeley as an instructor in physics in
1905.
Two notable events in King's life occurred in 1906: one
was a paper he published in the Anna1ten der Physik that
described an electric furnace for spectroscopic purposes.
This was the forerunner of the King furnace. The other was
his marriage to Louise Burnett, the daughter of a Presbyte-
rian minister and a descendent of early New England and
New York families. The Kings had two sons, Robert, born in
90S, and Ralph, born in ~ 9 ~ ~ .
In 1907 George E. Hale offered King a position on the
staff of the recently established Mt. Wilson Observatory in
Southern California. Hale, founder and first director of the
observatory, was forming a staff of competent young men
who were destined to dominate observational astronomy
for many years. Hale was a strong believer in the need for
an associated physical laboratory to provide data necessary
for interpretation of astronomical observations, especially
spectroscopic observations of the sun and stars for which
the great telescopes located on Mt. Wilson were designed.
Hale's remarkable enthusiasm was shared by the staff. He
had the ability to pick good people, not only the scientific
staff but the support people as well. He also felt that one of
the main objectives of the observatory should be the under-
taking of basic and extended research programs seldom
undertaken by university researchers at that time because
they depended on continued support over a long period of
time and significant results were not expected to be forth-
coming in a few months. This policy applied to both astro-
nomical and physical laboratory programs. The large en-
dowment (for the time) from the Carnegie Institution of
Washington was able to provide continuing support for ma-
jor projects such as the Mt. Wilson Observatory. At that
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ARTHUR S. KING
185
time there was no National Science Foundation, and finan-
cial support of scientific research by the government came
largely through private and state-supported universities.
A physical laboratory as part of the observatory was one
of Hale's several innovative policies. He had already set up
a small laboratory on the mountain that soon proved to be
impractical largely (lue to power limitations. It was also HaTe's
idea that it would be best for the observatory staff to live in
Pasadena rather than on Mt. Wilson. This also has proved
to be a wise decision. Consequently, the laboratory was es-
tablished in Pasadena in conjunction with the shops and
offices of the staff. In 1908 Hale published an article in the
Astrophysical Journal (lescribing a new physical laboratory
being constructed for the observatory in Pasadena. At the
time it was probably the best-equipped physical laboratory
west of Chicago.
In the same issue of the Astrophysical Journal containing
HaTe's article was a paper by King describing a newly de-
signed electric vacuum furnace for spectroscopic observa-
tions. This was the furnace that became known as the King
furnace. It remained basically unchanged during King's Tong
series of spectroscopic observations extending over almost
forty years.
The heating element of the furnace was an accurately
machined graphite tube about one-half inch in diameter
inside with an eighth-inch wall thickness. The tube was
cIampecl between graphite blocks, which in turn were held
tightly in water-cooled metal clamps. The whole assembly
was enclosed in a vacuum chamber with quartz windows at
each end. Voltages in five volt stages between 5 and 50 volts
provided high currents through the tube. The current was
.. . . . . .. . . · · . ~
controlled by a rheostat, while the observer crutch cont~nu-
ally monitor the temperature inside the tube by means of
an optical pyrometer. Temperatures up to 3000°C could be
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
achieved, and almost any solic! substance could be melted
or vaporized en c! most of its molecules dissociated. The
incandescent vapor, when focused on the slit of a spec-
trograph, produced emission lines, mainly those of the neutral
atom. At high furnace temperatures, the molecular bands
of C2 en c! CN became prominent. Absorption spectra could
be observed by placing a graphite plug in the center of the
furnace tube or by focusing the beam of light from a source
of continuous spectrum such as a tungsten filament at the
center of the heated tube, then onto the slit of the spec-
trograph. The photographic plate homer was mounted on
a horizontal track above floor level.
The Pasadena laboratory was equipped with two large
electrograting spectrographs. One had a plane grating in a
30-foot-focus, Litrow-type mounting. The second user] a con-
cave grating of lL5-feet focus in a Rowlancl-type mounting.
Both were mounter! vertically in a pit. This arrangement
proviclecl more free floor space and excellent temperature
stability. Most of King's work was done with the concave
grating spectrograph.
Ever since his European sojourn King hac! loved to travel.
In 1914 he purchased a new Overianc! touring car, a power-
ful meclium-size four-cylincler automobile, and began to ex-
plore the local country. Almost every Sunciay he took his
family for an afternoon ricle: to the beaches, the moun-
tains, or just through the orange groves to a nearby town.
He was the first Mt. Wilson staff member to cirive his family
up Mt. Wilson. The oIcl toll roacI, while well maintainecl,
was only one car wicle, except for frequent "turnouts' and
for the inexperienced it was a real adventure. In 1915 King
drove his family to Berkeley, where they spent most of the
summer, and frequently visited the Pan American Tnterna-
tional Exposition in San Francisco. He also took them to
Lake Tahoe en c! to Sequoia National Park.
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ARTHUR S. KING
187
World War I did not seriously disrupt the observatory's
research programs, although King and Harold D. Babcock
spent some time developing an acoustical submarine-de-
tecting device that seems to have been a forerunner of the
sophisticated and very effective detection devices developed
during World War IT. By 1918 the war had created a short-
age of physics instructors at Berkeley, and King was asked
to come and help teach. He obtained a leave of absence
from the observatory and took his family with him to Ber-
keley for several months.
King lived most of his adult life during what this writer
considers the golden age of Southern California, say, be-
tween 1900 and the beginning of World War TI. The coun-
tryside, originally semidesert, was beautiful, with the allu-
vial slopes at the base of the mountains covered with citrus
groves interspersed with attractive and prosperous small towns.
The lower-lying portions of the river valleys were devoted to
alfalfa fields and dairy and vegetable farms. Smog was not
yet a problem, nor was overpopulation or traffic. In fact,
Southern California was a delightful place to live and was
appreciated by easterners and Midwesterners, who moved
there in large numbers. Industry was mainly engaged in
services and construction. Manufacturing was small scale
and located mainly in east Los Angeles. It was a favorable
atmosphere for scientific research; the observatory thrived
and its neighbor, the California Institute of Technology,
began its development into a great research institution, due
in large part to the efforts of George E. Hale.
Beginning in 1909 King developed his well-known tem-
perature classification of spectral lines of the elements. His
earliest publications indicate he had always been interested
in the differences in the relative strengths of lines in a
given spectrum with the degree of excitation. The graphite
tube electric furnace made it possible to sort out lines that
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
appeared at different known temperatures and strengths
with increasing temperature and were therefore presum-
ably associated with different energy levels in the atom. He
thus proceeded to adopt an arbitrary scale of estimates of
relative intensity of lines in a given spectrum and associate
it with the temperature at which the lines appeared. The
lines that appeared at the lowest temperatures usually be-
Tow 2000° en cl strengthened rapidly with increasing tem-
perature were clesignatecl Class T. Classes Il. TIT, and {V cles-
ignate(1 lines appearing at increasingly higher temperatures.
Class V inclucled lines that first appeared] at high tempera-
tures but were much stronger in the arc spectrum. King's
intensity estimates were meticulous and very consistent. These
intensity estimates and the temperature classifications proved
to be key ingredients in the later-term analyses of the com-
plex spectra of the metals ant! rare earths. In nearly all of
his observations over a periocI of almost forty years King
usecI a concave grating spectrograph of 15-foot focus in a
Rowlanc! mounting in a vertical rather than the usual hori-
zontal arrangement. The grating was located in a pit that
ensured quite constant temperature, ant! the plate hoIcler
was mounted on a convenient horizontal track above floor
level.
Because of HaTe's interest in the magnetic splitting of
the many lines observed in sunspot spectra, the laboratory
acquirer! a large Weiss electromagnet capable of producing
fields up to 30,000 gauss. King ant! others user! this to recorc!
spark spectra of several metals and to measure the Zeeman
splitting of many lines. In later years these data also proved
useful and often conclusive evidence in the identification
of the terms involved in transitions. However, of greater
importance in the 1920s and 1930s to those involved in the
term analysis of complex spectra were King's estimated in-
tensities and temperature classifications of lines. They fur-
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ARTHUR S. KING
189
nished clues and often unique evidence about the ordering
of the electronic energy levels in the atom. King continued
this work throughout the 1920s en c] 1930s, in fact until his
retirement. In the late 1920s King became interested in the
spectra of the rare earth elements; accurate wavelength
measurements had not been clone on many of them. The
main reason for this was the difficulty in obtaining pure
samples of these elements. Usually samples contained mix-
tures of two or more rare earth elements, and consequently
spectroscopic observations were discouraging.
King contacted] a retired industrial chemist named McCoy
who was making a hobby of purifying rare earths. McCoy's
samples enables! King to make wavelength measurements,
furnace arc, and spark intensity estimates as well as tem-
perature classifications of their spectral lines. These data
were basic to the term analysis of these very complex spec-
tra. It is not too much to say that probably little wouIc! have
been accomplished for a long time in the term analysis of
rare earth spectra without King's data. King continued his
observations of rare earth spectra until his retirement in
1943.
The graphite tube furnace also led to the discovery of an
important isotope. The furnace at higher temperatures
brought out the band spectra of the characteristic molecules
CN en c! C2 (CN because of resiclual air in the furnace en-
closure). King had often recorded spectra of the CN bands
and also the carbon bands called the Swan bands whose
primary head lay in 4737 angstroms. This band had been
identified as belonging to the cliatomic molecule C2. Fur-
nace spectra at high temperature and Tong exposure showecl
a much fainter but almost identical bancI heat! at \4744.5
with the resolved components degrading in intensity to-
warc! the violet as dicl those associated with the strong X4737
band. The faint 4744.5 band hacl also been observed in the
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
spectra of N-type stars, the co-called carbon stars. King had
suspected for some time that these faint bands were prob-
ably due to the presence of the isotope Cl3 forming with
the dominant isotope c~2 the molecule Ci2C~3. Since the
presence and relative strength of the 4744.5 band was con-
sistent in the furnace spectra at high temperature, the iso-
tope was probably stable (unlike the later-d~scovered iso-
tope Cat. The theory of diatomic molecular spectra or band
spectra was still in the process of development, and King
invited one of those who was engaged in this work, R. T.
Birge of the University of California, to collaborate. They
published a paper in Nature announcing the discovery of
the carbon isotope of mass 13. The comprehensive paper
by King and Birge was published in 1930 in the Astrophysical
journal. The position of the band head and the wavelength
of the secondary lines matched exactly those predicted by
theory for the molecule C~2C~3. This identification also, of
course, solved the mystery of the presence of the faint band
head in spectra of carbon stars mentioned above.
During the :1930s King continued his observations of fur-
nace spectra, particularly of the rare earths; in fact, he did
so until his retirement. In 1936 he collaborated with his
son, Robert, in developing a method using the graphite
tube furnace for the quantitative measurement of the true
relative strengths of lines in complex spectra. These data
were desired by astronomers studying high-dispersion stel-
lar and solar spectra. Thus, it can be said that the majority
of King's work in the team was directed toward! providing
data for astrophysical applications; his wavelengths, line in-
tensity, and temperature classifications were essential ingre-
dients to the term analyses of complex spectra, which were
necessary for interpretation of solar and stellar spectra.
in ~ 941 King served as president of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific, one of the oldest astronomical societ-
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ARTHUR S. KING
191
ies. He also served a term as president of the American
Meteorical Society in the 1930s.
King retired in 1943 and soon became involved with war
work at CalTech, where he joiner! a project concerned with
the underwater ballistics of aircraft torpedoes. He contin-
ucc! with this work for several years after the end of the war
when the project was taken over by the U.S. Navy but re-
mained in Pasadena.
Good health hacl been as asset to King since his early
youth and permitted him to remain active Tong after retire-
ment. However, in the mict-1950s he overextended himself
on an automobile trip with his wife to Oregon ant! never
really recovered his full strength. His health failed rapidly
in 1957, and he passed away in his sleep on April 25th in
Pasadena. He left his wife, two sons, and four granciciaugh-
ters.
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192
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Uber Emissionsspektra von Metallen im Electrichen Ofen. Ann. Phys.
(Leipzig) 16:360.
An electric furnace for spectroscopic investigations. Astrophys. /. 28:300.
Furnace spectra in hydrogen atmosphere (Ca, Cs, Cu. Fe, Hg, Na).
Astrophys. J. 27:353.
Effect of pressure upon electric furnace spectra of Cr. Fe, & V.
Astrophys. J. 4:37.
The occurrence of the enhanced lines of titanium in furnace spec-
tra. Astrophys. J. 37:119.
Some electric furnace experiments on the emission of enhanced
lines of Ti in a hydrogen atmosphere. Astrophys. f. 40:213.
The properties in the electric furnace of the banded spectra as-
cribed to titanium oxide, magnesium hydride, & calcium hydride.
Astrophys. J. 43:341.
A study of the relation of arc & spark lines by means of the tube arc
(Ca, Fe, Ti, V). Astrophys. J. 38:315.
The tube-arc spectra of iron & a comparison of dissymetries in
spark spectra. Astrophys. f. 41 :373.
Discussion of some evidence on the origin of radiation in the tube
resistance furnace. Astrophys. i. 49:48.
On the separation in the magnetic field of some lines occurring as
doublets & triplets in sun-spot spectra (Fe, Ti) Astrophys. J. 29:76.
The Zeeman effect for titanium. Astrophys. f. 30:1.
The correspondence between Zeeman effect & pressure displace-
ment of spectra of iron, chromium, & titanium. Astrophys. f. 31:433.
The influence of a magnetic field upon the spark spectra of iron &
titanium. Astrophys. J. 34: 225.
The structure of the lithium line \7608 & its probable occurrence
in the sun-spot spectra. Astrophys. J. 44:169.
With E. Carter. Preliminary observations of the spectral calcium &
iron produced by cathodo-luminescence. Astrophys. f. 44:303.
With E. Carter. A further study of metallic spectra produced in
high vacua (Ca, Cd, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ti). Astrophys. f. 49:224.
The electric furnace spectrum of iron in the ultra violet, with data
for the blue & violet. Astrophys. f. 56:318.
Electric furnace spectrum of scandium. Astrophys. jr. 54:28.
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ARTHUR S. KING
193
Electric furnace spectrum of titanium in the ultra-violet. Astrophys.
[. 50:135.
Experiments of the possible influence of potential difference on
the radiation of the tube resistance furnace. Astrophys. f. 52:187.
Intensity differences in furnace & arc among the component series
in band spectra. Astrophys. f. 53:161.
Lines of tungsten & rhenium appearing in the spectrum of the
electric furnace. Astrophys. f. 75:370.
Observations of the Zeeman effect for electric furnace spectra. Astrophys.
[. 51:107.
Spectroscopic phenomena of the high-current arc. Astrophys. f. 64:239.
Temperature classification of the spectra of europium, gadolinium,
terbium, dysprosium, & hafnium. Astrophys. f. 72:221.
Temperature classification of the stronger lines of cerium & praseody-
mium. Astrophys. J. 68:104.
Temperature classification of the stronger lines of columbium, with
notes of their hyperfine structure. Astrophys. f. 73:13.
Temperature classification of the spectrum of neodymium. Astrophys.
J. 70:9.
Temperature classification of infrared iron lines. Astrophys. J. 80:124.
Temperature classification of samarium lines. Astrophys. f. 82:140.
With R. B. King. Relative gf values for lines of FeI from electric
furnace absorption spectra. Astrophys. J. 82:377.
A spectroscopic examination of meteorites. Astrophys. f. 81:507.
With R. B. King. Relative gf-values for lines of FeI and TiI. Astrophys.
J. 87:24.
The spark spectrum of iron, \~5016-7712, with identification of
FeII lines in the solar spectrum. Astrophys. f. 87:109.
With H. N. Russell. The arc spectrum of europium. Astrophys. f.
90:155.
Temperature classification of gadolinium lines. Astrophys. f. 97:323.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
temperature classification
