A Swiss mathematician and teacher remembered for finding an empirical pattern in the hydrogen emission spectrum. In 1885 he expressed the wavelengths of its visible spectral lines through a simple formula in integer parameters. The resulting Balmer series connected measured wavelengths that had previously looked like separate experimental numbers.
Balmer's result was a numerical regularity, rather than a physical explanation of atomic structure. Its success included a further predicted line consistent with observation. The later Bohr model explained why transitions between discrete energy levels produce such a series. The episode shows how a mathematical pattern can become evidence guiding a later physical theory. [ref]
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Balmer/. University of St Andrews historical biography, mathematical work and career
A mathematician.[ref]
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Balmer/. Independent professional profile
Portrait of Johann Jakob Balmer
. F. Brandseph, photograph circa 1865; Basel University Library, UBH Portr BS Balmer JJ 1825, 2c/2b/2a; contributed with Wikimedia CH. Public domain in Switzerland under expired-term rule and in life-plus-70 jurisdictions; library declares document public domain. Source usage terms, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Johann Jakob Balmer (1825–1898) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist best known for his work in the field of spectroscopy and for formulating the Balmer series, which describes the wavelengths of light emitted by hydrogen atoms. In 1885, Balmer derived a simple mathematical formula that accurately predicts the wavelengths of the visible spectral lines of hydrogen.