author
Johann Jakob Balmer
1825–1898
Best known for uncovering the simple numerical pattern behind hydrogen’s visible spectral lines, this Swiss mathematician made a discovery that helped open the way to modern atomic physics. Much of his career was spent teaching in Basel, where patient classroom work ran alongside the insight that later gave science the Balmer series.
1 Audiobook
Sicherer Wegweiser zu einer guten und gesunden Wohnung Zwei Preisschriften
by Theodor Meyer-Merian, Johann Jakob Balmer
About the author
Born in Lausen, Switzerland, on May 1, 1825, Johann Jakob Balmer studied mathematics in Karlsruhe and Berlin before earning his doctorate at the University of Basel in 1849. He went on to build a long teaching career in Basel rather than following the more typical path of a university research star.
Balmer is remembered above all for his 1885 formula describing the visible spectral lines of hydrogen. That elegant pattern, now called the Balmer series, became an important step toward atomic spectroscopy and later atomic theory.
He died in Basel on March 12, 1898. Though he published relatively little, his name endured because one carefully reasoned result turned out to matter enormously.