A long shot that paid off: CSIRO’s Atomic Absorption Project (1970)

By June 1st, 1970

The discovery in the early nineteenth century that chemical elements could be identified by observing their emission spectra led to the development of accurate methods of chemical analysis based on atomic emission spectra.

The discovery in the early nineteenth century that chemical elements could be identified by observing their emission spectra led to the development of accurate methods of chemical analysis based on atomic emission spectra. But it was nearly 100 years before Dr A. Walsh of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics started asking questions and became convinced that there would be many fundamental advantages in using spectrochemical methods based on atomic absorption spectra.

Despite many technical difficulties and lack of interest overseas, Dr Walsh and his colleagues persisted and finally showed that the technique they had devised had widespread applications in fields as diverse as medicine, engineering, agriculture and mineral exploration.