In 1894, two short se ries of t hreefold spectra l tcrms wcrc d iscov cred in t he a re spcctru.'n of manganese, and in 1922 other regula ri t ies invo lving fi vcfold and s ixfold te rms were d iSco vered by Catala n who coined t he word " mul t iple t" fo r t he group of related li nes res ult lll g from combinations of such complex terms. M ult iplet a na lyses of co mplex spectra promptly led t o t he prese nt formal quan t um inte rpretation of a ll suc h ph enomena, b ut co mpa ra ble progress in the analys is of t he Mnl spectrum was ha nd lcappcd by t he p a ucity of experimental data.. . .
r.New observations of about 2500 wavelengt hs andl11 tc nSlt lcs plu s .440 Zeema n p atterns made a vailable in 1948-49 have now been co mpl ctely ex pl o ltcd to dcn ve ad di tIO nal ato mi c energy levels a nd t hcreby expl a in m ore of t he o bser ve d M n I Ii ncs. Th e res ul t IS t hat a total of 42 even t erms wit h 125 Icvcls a nd 60 g-valucs havc now bce n deS ig nated a nd a ll ocated to elec tron co nfi o-urations a nd 94 odd tc rms wit h 266 Icvels, 164 g-va lues, plu s 13 mi scell a neo us levels. Thes~ te rms a'rc di st ri b ut cd a mong four mul t ipli cities (dou blets, q ua rt? ts, sextet s, oc tets) , a nd tra nsit ions bet ween eve n '); nd odd te rms acco u nt for more t ha n 2030 bnes r a ngll1 g in wavelcngt h fr om 1785 X. to 17608 A.