Fraunhofer

Joseph von, German optician; born 1787; died 1826. He ultimately became a partner in a manufactory of optical instruments at Munich. His many improvements in gla -making, in optical instruments, and in the polishing of lenses were eclipsed by his investigation of the innumerable dark fixed lines in the solar spectrum, known as Fraunhofer’s Lines. The importance of this discovery can scarcely be overestimated. It led to the invention and use of the spectroscope, to the science of spectroscopy, and to all our present knowledge of solar and stellar chemistry. _ Frazee, Laurence Fisher, an American inventor; born in New Brunswick, N. J., May 22, 1813. During the Civil War he had command of the transport “ Ma achusetts.” He was the inventor of numerous useful appliances, including a life-raft which was purchased by the United States government; the lifeboat davits in use on ferry-boats and ocean steamships; a stern paddle wheel for canal boats; a safety pnepiank; ete. He died in Jersey City, N. J., Oct. 10, 1896., Frear, Walter Francis, an American jurist; born in Gra Valley, ool Oct. 29, 1863; was graduated at Yale University in 1885, and at the Yale Law School in 1890; was made second judge of the first Circuit Court of Hawaii, in January, 1893, and first a ociate justice in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Hawaii in January, 1896. He was a member of the commi ion to recommend to Congre legislation for Hawaii, in August, 1898, and became chief-justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii in July, 1900. He is the author of “Evolution of the Hawaiian Judiciary ” ete.