The physics lab at my school has some old, weird, and wonderful equipment with no user’s manual that no one at the school know how to use, and coming across this piece again today I decided to ask the internet to help me try it out.
It’s a closed glass tube. About 8 inches long. Electrodes at each end. And the middle section spirals through a separate, liquid filled chamber.
I’d be very surprised if the purpose isn’t to produce light when a substantial voltage is applied between the electrodes, but I’d like to try to find out a bit more before I start experimenting so I don’t cause an explosion or accidentally expose myself to lethal levels of theta radiation. And to know exactly what the heck I’ve done if I get it to do something interesting.
Often, grad students, post docs, etc. have ideas that they’d like to try out, except that there’s no such piece of apparatus that will do what they want. So they get one built. It works, or not. After that, the piece is still around. That may explain this piece. The tube within a tube evokes notions of a distilling process.
Looks like some kind of condenser or “still”. But with electrodes at the ends? It must be an electron purification/condenser device. You pour your diluted and contaminated electrons in at one end. It will glow (be sure to wear your UV protective goggles), so you will know that the electrons are being separated from contaminating photons.
At the other end, you get a flow of more concentrated and purified, photon-free electrons.
a gas discharge tube jacketed with a fluid absorptive of that frequency radiation, where the gas is closer to the outside there is less absorption. just speculatin.
And yes, high voltage must be applied, and pics must be posted if it lights up and/or kills a small mammal in the vicinity. If it works, it might be worth 100+ bucks, maybe more (or less)?
So it’s history. Cool! Would this be from the time when everyone said what use is wasting money researching electricity and magnetism? Or from the time when everyone was speculating that electricity and magnetism could do anything?
