Accession No

4413

Brief Description

geissler vacuum tube

Origin

Maker

Class

physics

Earliest Date

1900

Latest Date

1950

Inscription Date

Material

glass (white, uranium); wood; metal; wax

Dimensions

height 287mm in stand

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased in Christie’s Nicholas Webster Collection sale, 26/09/1991, lot 82.

Inscription

Description Notes

Blown glass tube in fancy design with coils and curved handles, yellow and clear glass. With carved wooden stand. Connections at top and bottom for electric current to pass through and so illuminate the gas that is trapped inside the tube. Residue of sealing wax on upper terminal. In recently made box with wool packing.

Good condition

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:40471