Contribution to the study of composite spectra. I - Revision of the bright star pattern of Hynek's lists

We give a brief summary of past papers on stars with composite spectra and a recall of Hynek's classification. With the aid of new stellar data we obtained a new scheme for the bright stars of Hynek's lists.

We are led to the following conclusions: The number of spectrum binaries decreases as the knowledge we have about the composite spectra increases. This decrease is due to the discovery of spectroscopic binaries and of Am, Ap stars.

These results should allow the specialist to find new spectroscopic binaries and Am Ap stars among the numerous fainter spectrum binaries of Hynek's lists.