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The Geissler tube is a glass tube for demonstrating the principles of electrical glow discharge. The tube was invented by the German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 physicist and glassblower Heinrich Geissler
Heinrich Geissler

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Gei?ler was a Germany physicist and inventor of the Geissler tube, a low pressure gas-discharge tube made of glass. He worked in his parent's business and worked later in different German universities....
 in 1857. The Geissler tube was an evacuated
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
 glass cylinder with an electrode at each end. A Geissler tube contains one or more of the following rarefied (thinned) gasses, such as neon
Neon

Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth....
, argon
Argon

Argon is a chemical element designated by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table ....
, or air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
; mercury
Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
 or other conductive liquids; or ionizable minerals or metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
s, such as sodium
Sodium

Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
.






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The Geissler tube is a glass tube for demonstrating the principles of electrical glow discharge. The tube was invented by the German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 physicist and glassblower Heinrich Geissler
Heinrich Geissler

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Gei?ler was a Germany physicist and inventor of the Geissler tube, a low pressure gas-discharge tube made of glass. He worked in his parent's business and worked later in different German universities....
 in 1857. The Geissler tube was an evacuated
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
 glass cylinder with an electrode at each end. A Geissler tube contains one or more of the following rarefied (thinned) gasses, such as neon
Neon

Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth....
, argon
Argon

Argon is a chemical element designated by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table ....
, or air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
; mercury
Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
 or other conductive liquids; or ionizable minerals or metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
s, such as sodium
Sodium

Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
. When a high voltage is applied to the terminals, an electrical current flows through the tube. The current will disassociate electrons from the gas molecules, creating ion
Ion

An ion is an atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons, giving it a positive or negative electrical charge. According to the Bohr_model this will be from or in the outer shield 'n'....
s, and when electrons recombine with the ions, different lighting effects are created. The light will be characteristic of the material contained within the tube and will be composed of one or more narrow spectral lines.

Application

Geissler tubes were mass produced from the 1880s as entertainment devices, with various spherical chambers and decorative serpentine paths formed into the glass tube. When the tube was handled (the terminals were insulated) the shape of the plasma changed. Some tubes were very elaborate and complex in shape and would contain chambers within an outer casing. If these were spun at high speed a visual disk of color was seen due to persistence of vision
Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which even nanoseconds of exposure to an image result in milliseconds of reaction from the retina to the optic nerves....
. (Somewhat similar devices in the form of stationary globes are now produced and sold for personal amusement.) As an educational tool they are also used to demonstrate the movement of electrons and the principles of a vacuum
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
.

Influence

It was observed that under some conditions the glass envelope would itself glow at the positive (anode) end. This glow was attributed to the transmission of a ray from the negative cathode at the opposite end of the device, and so were named cathode ray
Cathode ray

Cathode rays are streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes, i.e. vacuum glass tubes that are equipped with at least two metal electrodes to which a voltage is applied, a cathode or negative electrode and an anode or positive electrode....
s. William Crookes
William Crookes

Sir William Crookes, Order of Merit , Fellow of the Royal Society was an England chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy....
 developed a modification of the Geissler tube into what is known as the Crookes tube
Crookes tube

A Crookes tube is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, invented by British physicist William Crookes and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, that is electrons, were discovered....
 to demonstrate and study these rays, later determined to be a stream of electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s. This device was further developed into the cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen....
 with applications in electronics
Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
 development and diagnosis, and in radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
 and television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 displays.

Xetube
Geissler tubes have had a large impact on the development of many instruments and devices all of which use related vacuum and discharge principles.
  • Xenon flash lamps (for flash photography),
  • Xenon arc lamp
    Xenon arc lamp

    A xenon arc lamp is an Lighting source. Powered by electricity, it uses ionized xenon gas to produce a bright white light that closely mimics natural daylight....
    s (for automobile headlights),
  • X-ray
    X-ray

    X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequency in the range 30 Hertz to 30 Hertz and energies in the range 120 Electron volt to 120 keV....
     tubes,
  • sodium vapor
    Sodium vapor lamp

    A sodium vapor lamp is a gas discharge lamp which uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. There are two varieties of such lamps: low pressure and high pressure....
     lamps of low and high pressure,
  • "Neon" signs
    Neon sign

    Neon signs are luminous-tube signs that contain neon or other inert gases at a low pressure. Applying a high voltage makes the gas glow brightly....
     (both using visible light discharge from neon
    Neon

    Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth....
     and other gases and indirectly through phospor excitation from ultraviolet light)
  • Mercury vapor lamps,
  • Mass spectrometry
    Mass spectrometry

    Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique for the determination of the elemental composition of a sample or molecule. It is also used for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and other chemical compounds....
     devices,
  • Cathode ray tube
    Cathode ray tube

    The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen....
     (employed in the Oscilloscope
    Oscilloscope

    An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows signal voltages to be viewed, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences plotted as a function of time or of some other voltage ....
     (an electronic diagnostic device) and later as a television
    Television

    Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
    , radar
    Radar

    Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
    , and computer display
    Computer display

    A visual display unit, often called simply a monitor or display, is a piece of electrical equipment which displays images generated from the video output of devices such as computers, without producing a permanent record....
     device),
  • Electrotachyscope
    Electrotachyscope

    The ?lectrotachyscope is an 1887 invention of Ottomar Ansch?tz of Germany which presents the illusion of motion with transparent serial photographs, chronophotography, arranged on a spinning The Wheel of Fortune or mandala-like glass disc, significant as a technology development in the history of cinema....
     (an early moving picture display device), and
  • Fluorescent lamp
    Fluorescent lamp

    A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to Excited state mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluorescence, producing Light....
    s.


See also

People: William Crookes
William Crookes

Sir William Crookes, Order of Merit , Fellow of the Royal Society was an England chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy....
 Devices: Cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen....
 (CRT), Crookes tube
Crookes tube

A Crookes tube is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, invented by British physicist William Crookes and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, that is electrons, were discovered....
, Induction coil
Induction coil

An induction coil or "spark coil" is a type of disruptive discharge coil. It is a type of electrical transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage Direct current supply....
, Neon sign
Neon sign

Neon signs are luminous-tube signs that contain neon or other inert gases at a low pressure. Applying a high voltage makes the gas glow brightly....
, X-ray tube
X-ray tube

An X-ray tube is a vacuum tube that produces X-rays. They are part of X-ray machines. X-rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, an ionizing radiation with wavelength just shorter than ultraviolet light....


External links

  • How to Make an Experimental Geissler Tube, Popular Science
    Popular science

    Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many formats, which can include books, televi...
     monthly, February 1919, Unnumbered page, Scanned by Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT3 Category:Articles with citations to Popular Science archive Category:Articles with verifiable citations via Google Books