1893 - Science

Science

Physicist Josef Stefan dies at Vienna January 7 at age 57. German physicist Wilhelm Wien, 29, expands on Stefan's 1879 work by observing that while radiation emitted from a blackbody is distributed over a wide range of wavelengths there is an intermediate wavelength at which it reaches a maximum, and this maximum is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of the blackbody (see 1898).

Physicist John Tyndall dies of an accidental chloral hydrate overdose administered by his wife, Louisa, at their Hindhead home in Haslemere, Surrey, December 4 at age 73, having shown why the sky is blue and paved the way for fiber optics by inventing a "light pipe."