William crookes
William Crookes (London, June 17, 1832 – London, April 4, 1919) was an English chemist, one of the most important scientists in Europe of the XIX, both in the field of physics and chemistry. In 1863 he entered the Royal Society, and was made Sir in 1910.
He is known for being the inventor of the cathode ray tube, for the discovery of the element thallium, and for being the first to analyze helium gas in the laboratory.
He was also one of the most important and prominent researchers, and later defender, of what is known today as scientific spiritualism.
Biography
Crookes's life was one of uninterrupted scientific activity. A chemist by training, he made his scientific discoveries compatible with his position as a meteorologist and with his intense activity as a lecturer. He worked in both chemistry and physics. His experiments were notable for the originality of their design and the skill in their execution that characterized him. He was interested in multiple fields: pure and applied science; theoretical and practical economic problems; psychiatric research; and even spiritualism. He enjoyed remarkable popularity, and his personality and achievements are well known.
- First years
William Crookes (later Sir William Crookes) was born in London in 1832, the eldest of 16 children. His father, Joseph Crookes, was a tailor originally from the north of the country. He was then living with his second wife, Mary Scott Lewis Rutherford Johnson.
Crookes studied chemistry at the Royal College of Chemistry, and was assistant to his tutor August Wilhelm von Hofmann between 1850 and 1854. He soon embarked on original work, investigating new selenium compounds, the subject of his first papers published in 1851 Curiously, he did not devote himself to organic chemistry, the specialty of his teacher.
- Adult life
He joined the meteorological department at Oxford's Radcliffe Observatory in 1854, and in 1855 was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Chester Diocesan Training College. In 1856 he married Ellen, daughter of William Humphrey of Darlington. They had three sons and a daughter. After getting married, he moved to live in London, dedicating himself mainly to working for him.
In 1859, he founded the Chemical News, a scientific journal that he edited for many years, characterized by the formal conciseness of its articles (contrary to what was usual in the journals of the scientific societies of The time). He was also editor of the Quarterly Journal for Science.
The method of spectral analysis, introduced by Bunsen and Kirchhoff, was received by Crookes (a very efficient experimenter) with great enthusiasm and with great effect: precisely his first important discovery was made with the help of spectroscopy. In 1861 Crookes identified the element thallium. Thanks to this discovery his reputation was firmly established, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1863.
He did extensive work on spectroscopy and conducted research on a wide variety of minor topics. In 1871 he published the treatise entitled Select Methods in Chemical Analysis .
He later developed the Crookes tube, with which he investigated cathode rays. He was a pioneer in the construction and use of vacuum tubes for the study of physical phenomena.
Among his most important works is having been the first to identify plasma (state of matter) in 1879. He also devised one of the first instruments to study nuclear radioactivity in 1903, the Spintariscope.
7 Kensington Park Gardens, London
After 1880, he lived at 7 Kensington Park Gardens, where he did all his later work in his private laboratory. In addition to being a brilliant researcher, Crookes knew how to make his discoveries profitable, which allowed him to maintain his private laboratory in London at his own expense.
- Last years
Crookes identified the first known sample of helium in 1895, showing that it matched the element observed a few years earlier in the spectrum of sunlight.
In 1903, he began to study radioactivity, managing to separate protactinium from uranium, although he was unable to identify it.
He was knighted in 1897 and Sir in 1910. He was also president of the Chemical Society and of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
For years he conducted experiments with mediums in his own home to try to advance the field of "Metapsychics", of which he was a convinced supporter. He died in London, in 1919
Scientific research
William Crookes' first major achievement was the discovery of the metallic element thallium. The new method of spectral analysis, introduced by Bunsen and Kirchhoff, was received by Crookes with great interest and enthusiasm, being the key for him to identify the new element thanks to a bright green emission line in his spectrum. Due to this circumstance, he named it thallium, from the Greek & # 34; Thallos & # 34; , green shoot .
In metallurgy, he developed an amalgamation process to separate silver and gold from their ores.
In applied chemistry, he worked on various topics: wastewater treatment, the manufacture of beet sugar, and the staining of muscle tissue, among others.
His most important work, however, was research on the conduction of electricity in gases. He invented the Crookes tube , which he used to study the properties of cathode rays. In his investigations of the conduction of electricity in gases at low pressure, he discovered that as the pressure is reduced, the negative electrode (cathode) begins to emit rays (so-called "cathode rays", now are known to be a free stream of electrons). He showed that they travel in straight lines, that they cause fluorescence when they hit some substances, and that their impact can produce great heat. He believed that he had discovered a fourth state of matter, which he called "radiant matter", but his theoretical views on the nature of "radiant matter" 3. 4; they were to be quickly overcome.He was of the opinion that the rays consisted of streams of particles of ordinarymolecular magnitude. He was left to Sir J.J. Thomson discover the subatomic nature of cathode rays (formed by negative currents of electrons). Crookes's experimental work in this field was the basis for the discoveries that ultimately changed the whole of chemistry and physics.
He was one of the first scientists to investigate what is now known as plasma and identified it as the fourth state of matter.
He also invented the radiometer, and the spintariscope, a particle detector. To make the radiometer (also called light-mill or light-mill in English), Crookes used an improved Sprengel pump in the laboratory of he. This pump consists of a glass capillary tube approximately 76 cm high. In its upper part it has a kind of funnel that contains mercury (approximately 12 kg) and in the lower part a container to receive the drops. Before the mercury in the upper tank runs out, it is recharged with the one that has already gone down. The droplets of mercury, when descending due to the effect of gravity, slowly extract small portions of air from the bulb that is to be evacuated. It took six to eight hours to arrive at the radiometer pressure, so Crookes was able to observe the start of the radiometer spin without needing to measure the pressure.
He identified the first known sample of helium in a laboratory, although the discovery of the gas is attributed to two astronomers: Frenchman Pierre Janssen and Britishman Norman Lockyer, who identified the new element in the lines of the spectrum of light detected in observations of the solar corona during an eclipse. Crookes was able to obtain the gas in samples of cleveite ore provided to him by his colleague William Ramsay, checking that his spectrum matched that detected in sunlight.
Years later he turned his attention to the recently discovered phenomenon of radioactivity, managing to separate uranium from its active transformation product, initially called uranium-X, and later finally known as protactinium . Crookes observed the gradual decomposition of the separated transformation product, and the simultaneous appearance of new amounts of protactinium in the original uranium. Around the same time as this important discovery, it was observed that when "P-particles", ejected by radioactive substances, strike zinc sulphide, each impact is accompanied by a minute of scintillation, an observation that forms the basis of one of the most useful methods in the technique of radioactivity.
Spiritism
Sir William Crookes was one of the pioneers in the investigation of psychic phenomena, specifically in the areas of materialization and mediumship. He shared this concern with the mathematician Augustus De Morgan. In 1870, he was part of the current known as “metapsychic” (predecessor of parapsychology) with his research on spiritism and mediumistic phenomena . He studied in depth and rigorously the great physical mediums of the time, such as Kate Fox, Daniel Dunglas Home, Eusapia Palladino and Florence Cook, recognizing the reality of his alleged extraordinary faculties. One of his most widely read articles on the subject is: “Spiritualism Viewed by the Light of Modern Science”. Another of his writings on this same subject is the book entitled: New Experiments on Psychic Force.
However, all of these alleged paranormal occurrences have since been reviewed, and there is ample evidence that Crookes may have either been misled into his good faith, or may have been romantically involved with a medium, and subsequently refused to admit that he had been the victim of fraud. Anthropologist Edward Clodd has noted that Crookes was very nearsighted, which may have explained his belief in spiritualistic phenomena (he quotes his friend William Ramsay, commenting that Crookes is 'so myopic that, despite his unquestioning honesty, what he says he has seen cannot be trusted.") Biographer William Brock wrote that Crookes was "evidently nearsighted, but did not wear spectacles until the 1890s. Until then, he may have used a monocle or pocket magnifying glass when necessary. We can only imagine the limitations that this fact has imposed on his psychic investigations.& # 34;
After studying reports on Florence Cook, science historian Sherrie Lynne Lyons wrote that the alleged spirit of "Katie King" it was Cook herself and on other occasions an accomplice. As for Crookes, Lyons wrote that: "Here was a man with an impeccable scientific reputation, who discovered a new element, but could not detect a real maiden quite alive who was disguised as a ghost." Cook was repeatedly denounced as a fraudulent medium, but she had been so well "trained in the art of séances" that she managed to fool Crookes. Some researchers such as Trevor H. Hall have suspected that Crookes may have had an romance with Cook.
In a series of experiments in London conducted at Crookes' home in February 1875, the medium Anna Eva Fay managed to trick Crookes into believing she had genuine psychic powers. Fay later confessed to his fraud and revealed the tricks he had used. As for Crookes and his experiments with mediums, magician Harry Houdini suggested that Crookes had been tricked. Physicist Victor Stenger wrote that the experiments were poorly controlled and "his desire to believe blinded him to the wiles of the psychics he examined."
In 1906, William Hope tricked Crookes with a fake photograph of his wife's spirit. Oliver Lodge revealed that there had been obvious signs of double exposure, and that the image of Lady Crookes had been copied from a wedding anniversary photograph. However, Crookes was a convinced spiritualist and claimed that it was genuine evidence for the existence of photography of spirits.
Physiologist Gordon Stein suspected that Crookes was too ashamed to admit that he had been deceived by the medium Florence Cook, or conspired with her in exchange for sexual favors. He also suggested that Crookes had conspired with Anna Eva Fay. He noted that contrary to initial popular belief, the Home case had been exposed as a fraud on several occasions. Stein concluded that all the feats were the result of Home's sleight of hand. In a review of the case, biographer William Brock wrote that Stein had run his "case against Crookes and Home clearly and logically."
Crookes joined the Society for Psychical Research, becoming its president in the 1890s: he also joined the Theosophical Society and the Ghost Club, of which he was president from 1907 to 1912. In 1890 he began in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
- Experiment with Daniel Dunglas Home
Cover of the work Scientific Studies of W. Crookes (ha. 1870)
Examples of psychic experiments: 1) A new accordion, bought by Crookes, is placed in a straight box.
(2) In the presence of Daniel Dunglas Home, the accordion interprets a melody "totally alone".
Acknowledgments and Honors
- (1863) Member of the Royal Society
- (1875) Royal Medal of the Royal Society.
- (1888) Davy Medal of the Royal Society.
- (1897) Named Knight
- (1904) Copley Medal of the Royal Society.
- (1910) Named Sir, with the designation of Sir Crookesreceiving the Order of Merit.
- The moon crater Crookes is so called in his honor.
- He was a Nobel Prize candidate several times, both in physics and in chemistry.