In order to understand how this “correspondence,” apparently so indefinite, can be used to derive important results, we shall give an illustration. Let us assume that the mechanical theory for the revolution of an electron in the hydrogen atom had led to the result that the orbits of the electrons always had to be circles. According to the laws of electrodynamics, the motion of the electron would in this case never give any overtones, and, according to the correspondence principle, there could not appear among the frequencies emitted by hydrogen any which would correspond to the overtones, i.e., there would not be any double jumps, triple jumps, etc., produced, but the only transitions would be those between successive stationary orbits. The investigation of the spectrum shows, however, that multiple jumps occur as well as single jumps, and this fact may be taken as evidence that the orbits in the hydrogen atom are not usually circles. Let us next assume that, instead, we had obtained the result that the orbits of the electrons are always ellipses of a certain quite definite eccentricity, corresponding to certain definite ratios in intensity between the overtones and the fundamentals; that, for instance, the intensity of the classical radiation due to the first overtone is in all states of motion always one-half that due to the fundamental, the intensity due to the second overtone always one-third that due to the fundamental, etc. Then the radiation actually emitted should, according to the correspondence principle, be such that the intensities of the lines corresponding to the double and triple jumps, which start from a given stationary state, are respectively one-half and one-third of the intensity corresponding to a single jump from the same state.

By these examples we can obtain an idea of how the correspondence principle may in certain cases account for various facts, as to what spectral lines cannot be expected to appear at all, although they would be given by a particular transition, and concerning the distribution of intensities in those which really appear. The illustration given above, however, has really nothing much to do with actual problems, and objections may be raised to the rough way in which the illustration has been handled. The correspondence principle has its particular province in more complicated electron motions than those which appear in the unperturbed hydrogen atom—motions which, unlike the simple elliptical motion, are not composed of a series of harmonic oscillations (ω, 2ω, 3ω ...) but may be considered as compounded of oscillations whose frequencies have other ratios. The correspondence principle has, in such cases, given rise to important discoveries and predictions which agree completely with the observations.

We have dwelt thus long upon the difficult correspondence principle, because it is one of Bohr’s deepest thoughts and chief guides. It has made possible a more consistent presentation of the whole theory, and it bids fair to remain the keystone of its future development. But from these general considerations we shall now proceed to more special phases of the problem and examine one of the first great triumphs in which the theory showed its ability to lead the way where previously there had been no path.

The False Hydrogen Spectrum.

In 1897 the American astronomer, Pickering, discovered in the spectrum of a star, in addition to the usual lines given by the Balmer series, a series of lines each of which lay about midway between two lines of the Balmer series; the frequencies of these lines could be represented by a formula which was very similar to the Balmer formula; it was necessary merely to substitute n = 3½, 4½, 5½, etc., in the formula on [p. 57] instead of n = 3, 4, 5, etc. It was later discovered that in many stars there was a line corresponding to n″ = ³/₂ or n′ = 2 in the usual Balmer-Ritz formula ([p. 59]). It was considered that these must be hydrogen lines, and that the spectral formula for this element should properly be written

ν = K 1 - 1
(n″/2) ²(n′/2) ²

where n″ and n′ can assume integral values. This was done since it was not to be believed that the spectral properties of chemically different elements could be so similar. This view was very much strengthened when Fowler, in 1912, discovered the Pickering lines in the light from a vacuum tube containing a mixture of hydrogen and helium. It could not quite be understood, however, why the new lines did not in general appear in the hydrogen spectrum.

According to the Bohr theory for the hydrogen spectrum it was impossible—except by giving up the agreement ([cf. p. 129]) with electrodynamics in the region of high orbit numbers—to attribute to the hydrogen atom the emission of lines corresponding to a formula where the whole numbers were halved. The formula given above might, however, also be written as

ν = 4K 1 - 1
n″ ²n′ ²

If the earlier calculations had been carried out a little more generally, i.e., if instead of equating the nuclear charge with 1 elementary electric quantum e, as in hydrogen, it had been equated with Ne where N is an integer, then the frequency might have been written as