Subject: History of atomic shell labels

From: Mikael Johansson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 16:21:04 +0300 (EET DST)

Hello All!

I today tried to find out the history of the labels of atomic shells,
without that much success... So if anyone has some good history
answers/references for the following the curiosity-lobe of my brain would
be satisfied for a while!

1.) Who came up with the idea of starting labeling of the atomic shells
    from K, L, M..., and more interestingly; why start from K?
2.) The subshell labels came from the spectral lines of alkali metals, but
    where Sharp, Principal and Diffuse lines are quite self explanatory,
    I have some difficulty of picturing a "Fundamental" spectral line :-)
    Any help?
3.) Was there a good reason for leaving out j from the labels for
    subshells?

Have a nice summer,
    Mikael Johansson
    University of Helsinki
    Department of Chemistry
    [email-masked]