Sir William Crookes
English chemist and physicist
Born	17 June 1832 London, England
Died	4 April 1919 London, England

Sir William Crookes, OM, FRS (17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was an English chemist and physicist. Sir William attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy. Download high resolution version (1000x1609, 447 KB)William Crookes Source: Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology (picture available on [1]) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... ... June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... For other Orders see Order of Merit (disambiguation). ... The Fellowship of the Royal Society was founded in 1660. ... June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... ... The Royal College of Chemistry (RCC) was a college originally based on Oxford Street in central London, England. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Extremely high resolution spectrum of the Sun showing thousands of elemental absorption lines (fraunhofer lines) Spectroscopy is the study of matter and its properties by investigating light, sound, or particles that are emitted, absorbed or scattered by the matter under investigation. ...

In 1861, Crookes discovered a previously unknown element with a bright green emission line in its spectrum and named the element thallium, from the Greek thallos, a green shoot. Crookes also identified the first known sample of helium, in 1895. He was the inventor of the Crookes radiometer, which today is made and sold as a novelty item. He also developed the Crookes tubes, investigating canal rays. 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar) // January 1 - Benito Juárez captures Mexico City January 2 - Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies and is succeeded by... General Name, Symbol, Number thallium, Tl, 81 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 6, p Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 204. ... General Name, Symbol, Number helium, He, 2 Chemical series noble gases Group, Period, Block 18, 1, s Appearance colorless Standard atomic weight 4. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Crookes radiometer, also known as the light mill or solar engine, consists of an airtight glass bulb, containing a partial vacuum. ... The Crookes tube is an evacuated glass cone with 3 node elements (one anode and two cathodes). ... Anode rays (or Canal rays) were produced in experiments by a German scientist, Eugen Goldstein, in 1886. ...

In his investigations of the conduction of electricity in low pressure gases, he discovered that as the pressure was lowered, the negative electrode appeared to emit rays (the so-called cathode rays, now known to be a stream of free electrons, and used in cathode ray display devices). As these examples indicate, he was a pioneer in the construction and use of vacuum tubes for the study of physical phenomena. He was, as a consequence, one of the first scientists to investigate what are now called plasmas. He also devised one of the first instruments for the study of nuclear radioactivity, the spinthariscope. Lightning strikes during a night-time thunderstorm. ... A schematic diagram of a Crookes tube apparatus. ... Butchers Creek, Omeo, Victoria A stream, brook, beck, burn or creek, is a body of water with a detectable current, confined within a bed and banks. ... In physics, the free electron model is a possible model for the behaviour of electrons in a crystal structure. ... Cathode ray tube employing electromagnetic focus and deflection Cutaway rendering of a color CRT Electron guns Electron beams Focusing coils Deflection coils Anode connection Mask for separating beams for red, green, and blue part of displayed image Phosphor layer with red, green, and blue zones Close-up of the phosphor... In electronics, a vacuum tube or (outside North America) thermionic valve or just valve, is a device generally used to amplify, switch or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ... A plasma lamp, illustrating some of the more complex phenomena of a plasma, including filamentation. ... A cheap toy spinthariscope taken from a 1950s Chemcraft brand Atomic energy chemistry experimentation set. ...

Early days

William Crookes was born in London, the eldest son of Thomas Crookes, a tailor of north-country origin. His second wife was Mary Scott. William received some instruction at a grammar school at Chippenham, Wiltshire, but his scientific career began when, at the age of fifteen, he entered the Royal College of Chemistry in Hanover Square, London.

Rise as prominent chemist

From 1850 to 1854 he filled the position of assistant in the college, and soon embarked upon original work, not in organic chemistry where the inspiration of his distinguished teacher, August Wilhelm von Hofmann, might have been expected to lead him, but on certain new compounds of the element selenium. These formed the subject of his first published papers in 1851. August Wilhelm von Hofmann (April 8, 1818 _ May 5, 1892) was a German chemist. ...

Leaving the Royal College, he became Superintendent of the meteorological department at the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford in 1854, and in 1855 was appointed lecturer in chemistry at the Chester training college. In 1856 he married Ellen, daughter of William Humphrey, of Darlington, by whom he fathered three sons and a daughter.

From this time his life was passed in London, devoted mainly to independent work. After 1850, he lived at 7 Kensington Park Gardens, where in his private laboratory all his later work was carried out. Crookes's life was one of unbroken scientific activity. He was never one of those who gain influence by popular exposition. The breadth of his interests, ranging over pure and applied science, economic and practical problems, and psychical research, made him a well-known personality, and he received many public and academic honours. In 1859 he founded the Chemical News a science magazine, which he edited for many years and conducted on much less formal lines than is usual with journals of scientific societies.

Crookes was knighted in 1897, and in 1910 received the order of merit. He died in London on 4 April 1919, two years after his wife, to whom he had been much devoted. Crookes is buried in London's Brompton Cemetery.

Legacy

The work of William Crookes extended over both chemistry and physics. Its salient characteristic was the originality of conception of his experiments, and the skill of their execution. This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Physics (Greek: (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the fundamental laws of the universe. ...

Chemistry

Crookes was always more effective in experiment than in interpretation. The method of spectral analysis, introduced by Bunsen and Kirchhoff, was received by Crookes with great enthusiasm and to great effect. His first important discovery was that of the element thallium, announced in 1861, and made with the help of spectroscopy. By this work his reputation became firmly established, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1863. A spectrum analyzer is a device used to examine at the spectral composition of some electrical, acoustic or optical waveform. ... Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (31st March, 1811 – 16th August, German chemist. ... Gustav Kirchhoff Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (March 12, 1824 – October 17, 1887), a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. ... General Name, Symbol, Number thallium, Tl, 81 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 6, p Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 204. ... 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar) // January 1 - Benito Juárez captures Mexico City January 2 - Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies and is succeeded by... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Crookes' attention had been attracted to the vacuum balance in the course of the thallium researches. He soon discovered the phenomenon upon which depends the action of the well-known little instrument, the Crookes radiometer, in which a system of vanes, each blackened on one side and polished on the other, is set in rotation when exposed to radiant energy. Crookes did not, however, provide the true explanation of this apparent "attraction and repulsion resulting from radiation". The Crookes radiometer, also known as the light mill or solar engine, consists of an airtight glass bulb, containing a partial vacuum. ... Radiation as used in physics, is energy in the form of waves or particles. ...

Crookes published numerous papers on spectroscopy, a subject which always had a great fascination for him, and he conducted research on a large variety of minor subjects. In addition to various technical books, he wrote a standard treatise on Select Methods in Chemical Analysis in 1871, and a small book on Diamonds in 1909. Extremely high resolution spectrum of the Sun showing thousands of elemental absorption lines (fraunhofer lines) Spectroscopy is the study of matter and its properties by investigating light, sound, or particles that are emitted, absorbed or scattered by the matter under investigation. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the gemstone. ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Physics

Crookes investigated the properties of cathode rays, showing that they travel in straight lines, cause phosphorescence in objects upon which they impinge, and by their impact 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" proved to be mistaken. He believed the rays to consist of streams of particles of ordinary molecular magnitude. It remained for Sir J. J. Thomson to discover their subatomic nature, and to prove that cathode rays consist of streams of negative electrons, that is, of negatively electrified particles whose mass is only 1/1840 that of a hydrogen atom. Nevertheless, Crookes's experimental work in this field was the foundation of discoveries which eventually changed the whole of chemistry and physics. Phosphorescent powder under visible light, ultraviolet light, and total darkness. ... Sir Joseph John Thomson, OM, FRS (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) often known as J. J. Thomson, was a British scientist. ... Properties The electron (also called negatron, commonly represented as e−) is a subatomic particle. ... General Name, Symbol, Number hydrogen, H, 1 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 1, 1, s Appearance colorless Atomic mass 1. ... Properties In chemistry and physics, an atom (Greek ἄτομος or átomos meaning indivisible) is the smallest particle still characterizing a chemical element. ...

In 1903, Crookes turned his attention to the newly discovered phenomena of radio-activity, achieving the separation from uranium of its active transformation product, uranium-X (later established to be protactinium). He observed the gradual decay of the separated transformation product, and the simultaneous reproduction of a fresh supply in the original uranium. At about the same time as this important discovery, he observed that when "p-particles", ejected from radio-active substances, impinge upon zinc sulphide, each impact is accompanied by a minute scintillation, an observation which forms the basis of one of the most useful methods in the technique of radio-activity. 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Radio-Activity is a 1975 album by Kraftwerk. ... General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Atomic mass 238. ... General Name, Symbol, Number protactinium, Pa, 91 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block ?, 7, f Appearance bright, silvery metallic luster Atomic mass 231. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Zinc sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula ZnS. Zinc sulfide is a white to yellow colored powder or crystal. ...

Spiritualism

In 1870 Crookes decided that science had a duty to study the preternatural phenomena associated with Spiritualism (Crookes 1870). Judging from family letters, Crookes had developed a favorable view of Spiritualism already by 1869 (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 232–233). Nevertheless, he was determined to conduct his inquiry impartially and described the conditions he imposed on mediums as follows: "It must be at my own house, and my own selection of friends and spectators, under my own conditions, and I may do whatever I like as regards apparatus" (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 177). Among the mediums he studied were Kate Fox, Florence Cook, and Daniel Dunglas Home (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 230-251). Among the phenomena he witnessed were movement of bodies at a distance, rappings, changes in the weights of bodies, levitation, appearance of luminous objects, appearance of phantom figures, appearance of writing without human agency, and circumstances which "point to the agency of an outside intelligence" (Crookes 1874). By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was the object of intense curiosity. ... The Fox Sisters Sisters Catherine (1838–92), Leah (1814–90) and Margaretta (1836–93) Fox played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. ... Katie King was the name given by Spiritualists in the 1870s to what they believed to be a materialized spirit. ... Daniel Dunglas Home (March 20, 1833 - June 21, 1886) was a Scottish spiritualist, famous during his lifetime for his claimed powers as a medium and his reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, elongate and to handle fire and hot coals without injury. ...

Crookes' report on this research, in 1874, concluded that these phenomena could not be explained as conjuring, and that further research would indeed be useful. Crookes was not alone in his views. Fellow scientists who came to believe in Spiritualism included Alfred Russel Wallace, Oliver Joseph Lodge, Lord Rayleigh, and William James (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 62). Nevertheless, most scientists were convinced that Spiritualism was fraudulent, and Crookes' final report so outraged the scientific establishment "that there was talk of depriving him of his Fellowship of the Royal Society." Crookes then became much more cautious and didn't discuss his views publicly until 1898, when he felt his position was secure. From that time until his death in 1917, letters and interviews show that Crookes was a believer in Spiritualism (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 169–170, 249–251). Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (January 8, 1823 – November 7, 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. ... Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (June 12, 1851 - August 22, 1940), born at Penkhull in Stoke-on-Trent and educated at Adams Grammar School, was a physicist and writer involved in the development of the wireless telegraph. ... See also Rayleigh fading Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh number Rayleigh waves Rayleigh-Jeans law External links Nobel website bio of Rayleigh About John William Strutt MacTutor biography of Lord Rayleigh Categories: People stubs | 1842 births | 1919 deaths | Nobel Prize in Physics winners | Peers | British physicists | Discoverer of a chemical element ... For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation) William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher. ...

Trivia

• In 1910 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Merit by King Edward VII.
• There is a portrait of Crookes by E. A. Walton in the rooms of the Royal Society, and another by P. Ludovici in the National Portrait Gallery NPG 1846

1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... For other Orders see Order of Merit (disambiguation). ... Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of the Commonwealth Realms, and the Emperor of India. ... The premises of The Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in St Martins Place, London, England, which opened to the public in 1856. ...

External links

• Works by William Crookes at Project Gutenberg
• Crookes, William. 1870. "Spiritualism Viewed by the Light of Modern Science." Quarterly Journal of Science. July 1870.
• Crookes, William. 1874. "Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritual during the Years 1870-1873." Quarterly Journal of Science. January 1874.
• Doyle, Arthur Conan. The History of Spiritualism. New York: G.H. Doran, Co. Volume 1: 1926 Volume 2: 1926
• Crookes, William. 1909. Diamonds: on treatments, physical and chemical properties of loose diamonds
• Hinshelwood, Cyril Norman, "William Crookes, A Victorian man of science". 1927. (Much material on this page was taken from Hinshlewood's article)
• The Cathode Ray Tube site
• Photo of gravesite