Glass bulb experiment
Date
1891
Creator
William Crookes (1832 - 1919, British) , Knight Chemist, Chemist
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (drawing): 102mm
width (drawing): 130mm
width (drawing): 130mm
Subject
Description
Diagram of an experiment on the evaporation and deposition of silver from an electrode within a vacuum tube. The experiment was intended to determine show whether metal ‘shot’ from a pole was responsible for phosphorescence.
Crookes described the apparatus and result thus: ‘A pear-shaped bulb of German glass, has, near the small end, an inner concave negative pole, A, of pure silver, so mounted that its inverted image is thrown upon the opposite end of the tube. In front of the pole is a screen of mica, having a small hole on the centre…’ Once electrified, silver deposition occurred at the pole, while the point D, ‘that had been continuously glowing with phosphorescent light’ was almost free of silver.
Plate from the manuscript version of the paper ‘On electrical evaporation’, by William Crookes, Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol.50 (1891), pp.88-105. The illustration was printed as figure 9 in the published paper.
The image has a paper label inscribed in ink: ‘Fig.9’. Various pencil and ink annotations verso.
Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) British chemist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1863. He served as President of the Royal Society in 1913-1915.
Crookes described the apparatus and result thus: ‘A pear-shaped bulb of German glass, has, near the small end, an inner concave negative pole, A, of pure silver, so mounted that its inverted image is thrown upon the opposite end of the tube. In front of the pole is a screen of mica, having a small hole on the centre…’ Once electrified, silver deposition occurred at the pole, while the point D, ‘that had been continuously glowing with phosphorescent light’ was almost free of silver.
Plate from the manuscript version of the paper ‘On electrical evaporation’, by William Crookes, Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol.50 (1891), pp.88-105. The illustration was printed as figure 9 in the published paper.
The image has a paper label inscribed in ink: ‘Fig.9’. Various pencil and ink annotations verso.
Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) British chemist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1863. He served as President of the Royal Society in 1913-1915.
Associated place