Accession No

5752

Brief Description

single coil, double twist with two bulbs Geissler’s tube, by Philip Harris Ltd., English, 20th Century

Origin

England; Birmingham

Maker

Philip Harris Ltd.

Class

physics

Earliest Date

1950

Latest Date

1999

Inscription Date

Material

glass; metal (aliminium, other metal)

Dimensions

length 218mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Donated by Anglia Polytechnic University (now Anglia Ruskin University), Cambridge, on 10/09/1999.

Inscription

Description Notes

discharge tube / Geissler’s tube, 20th century. Made from white and uranium glass. Double twist both in pale green glass passing through a bulb (one each end) and meeting in the middle at a white glass coil. At one end on the glass bulb is a transfer or etched writing which very faint appears to be “Forelgn” or should it be “Foreign”

Condition good

References

Events

Description
The Geissler tube was invented by the German glassblower Heinrich Geissler (1814 - 1879) in 1857. They were mass produced from the 1880's.

Geissler tubes contain a combination or one of the following: rarefied (thinned) gasses such as neon or argon, conductive liquids or minerals. Which when an electrical charge is passed through the tube different effects are created.

Some tubes were very elaborate and complex in shape and would contain chambers within an outer casing. The very decorative geissler tubes were often used as after dinner entertainment. As an educational tool they are also used to demonstrate the movement of electrons and the principles of a vacuum.

Geissler Tubes have had a large impact on the development of such instruments as the x-ray tube, neon signs, and the light bulb, all of which use the same vacuum principle.

Created by: Boris Jardine

FM:46132