English astronomer · 1836–1920
Norman Lockyer
Norman Lockyer gave helium its name. In 1868 he identified a yellow line in the Sun’s spectrum as a new element, and the next year he founded the journal Nature.
How Helium was found
In October 1868 Lockyer observed solar prominences from London with a new spectroscope, without waiting for an eclipse, and saw the same yellow line Pierre Janssen had recorded in India. Working with the chemist Edward Frankland, he concluded that no known element produced it.
He named it after helios, the Greek word for the Sun. Many chemists doubted him for decades. In 1895 William Ramsay finally found helium in a uranium mineral, proving that it existed on Earth too.
Shared the credit
The discovery is credited jointly to these scientists.
Life and career
Born 1836 · Died 1920
Lockyer was born in Rugby and worked as a clerk at the War Office while doing astronomy in his spare time. His solar work won him a government post, and he later directed the Solar Physics Observatory in South Kensington.
He founded Nature in 1869 and edited it for 50 years. He also studied the astronomical alignment of Stonehenge and other ancient monuments.
Also known for
- Founder and first editor of the journal Nature
- Pioneer of archaeoastronomy
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 1868.