Frank Washington Very (1852 - November 23, 1927) was a U.S. astronomer. He was born at Salem, Massachusetts, and educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1873). He worked at the Allegheny Observatory from 1878 until 1895. In 1890 he became a professor at Western University of Pennsylvania. He then was director of the Ladd Observatory at Brown University from 1896 to 1897. Wikipedia
Langley and Very use rocksalt (NaCl) prisms to create an infrared spectrum, as glass gets opaque at infrared wavelengths. home.casema.nl/errenwijlens/co2/langleyrevdraft2.htm
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Frank Washington Very. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Washington_Very