text: John Browning was perhaps best known as the leading manufacturer of spectroscopes. His were considered to be of the highest quality in England. In 1865, he supplied photographer William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) with a custom-made spectroscope. His crafting of fine spectroscopes strengthened his connection to the field of chemistry. In April 1872, Browning exhibited one of his spectroscopes at the Royal Society, more formally known as the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. In his 1878 book How to Work With the Spectroscope: A Manual of Practical Manipulation With Spectroscopes of All Kinds, John Browning provided an overview of the field of spectroscopy, and the book became well known among spectroscopists. It has been published in a number of editions, most recently on 3 June 2010 by Cambridge University Press. 
  While the first edition of 1878 contained only black and white images, the second edition of How to Work With the Spectroscope included one notable colour illustration (pictured). It was of the rainband spectrum by lawyer and scientist John Rand Capron. It first appeared as a black and while image in Symonss Monthly Meteorological Magazine. However, the second, 1882 edition of John Brownings handbook reproduced the plate in colour. It demonstrated Joseph von Fraunhofers solar lines A-F, with the rainband adjacent to the D lines. In the late 19th century, scientists were interested in the rainband for its potential in the detection of atmospheric water vapour and, therefore, the prediction of rain. Evaluation of the rainband represented the first attempt to use spectroscopy in the field of meteorology. Scottish astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth supported the contention that water vapour bands could be used to predict rainfall in the 22 July 1875 issue of Nature'. While the topic of the rainband and its use in meteorology was controversial, John Browning (and his competitors) manufactured pocket spectroscopes designed to show the rainband and marketed them as meteorological tools.