Used with
permission of Maiken Naylor, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA,
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/exhibits/stamps
Johannes Stark (1874-1957) was able to demonstrate the splitting of atomic spectral lines due to an electric field, just as Zeeman had done with a magnetic field. However, the patterns are not symmetrical about the original line, as in the Zeeman effect, nor are the relationships between field strength and change in wave length quite as simple, making the Stark effect not a useful tool for spectral analysis. Stark won the Nobel prize in physics in 1919 for this discovery, as well as for the observation of the Doppler effect in radiation emitted by accelerated hydrogen atoms in a discharge tube.