William Coblentz
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William Weber Coblentz (November 20, 1873 – September 15, 1962) was an American physicist notable for his contributions to infrared radiometry.
Coblentz was born in North Lima, Ohio, graduated from the Case School of Applied Science, now Case Western Reserve University (B.S., 1900), and received his PhD. in 1903 from Cornell University. In 1905 he founded the radiometry section of the National Bureau of Standards, which he headed for 40 years until his retirement in 1945.
In 1913 Coblentz received US Patent 1,077,219 for a solar cell invention to convert sunlight to electricity.
In 1915, Coblentz developed thermopile detectors which he used to measure the infrared radiation from 110 stars, as well as planets and nebulae. Together with Carl Lampland he measured large differences between the day and night temperatures on Mars, implying a thin Martian atmosphere. He is regarded as the founder of astronomical infrared spectroscopy for his astronomical research measuring the temperature of planets and the radiation of stars, and a crater on Mars has been named in his honor.
He was the first to verify Planck's Law, and was also the first to show that different atomic and molecular groupings absorb characteristic wavelength "fingerprints" in the infrared region.
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