Quantitative spectral types for 19 Algol secondaries

Time-resolved spectra of 19 short-period Algol-type binary star systems obtained during total eclipse are used to derive the temperature spectral class of the mass-losing secondary component. The spectral classifications employed a quantitative comparison of the strengths of absorption features in stars of known spectral class with those of the program stars. The luminosity spectral class can not be determined from these data, so both main-sequence and giant stars were used for the comparison. Our spectral types are compared with published types and found to be generally in good agreement, unless the published types are derived from the light curves. The photometrically determined types are systematically later than our directly determined types. This effect is shown also to exist in catalogs of Algol parameters.