# What's this weird bit of glassware from the physics lab?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 31, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960 "2013-01-31T21:42:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/1 "2013-01-31T21:42:52Z")
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.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/8097032@N02/8433994544/in/photostream](http://www.flickr.com/photos/8097032@N02/8433994544/in/photostream)
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/8097032@N02/8432909753/in/photostream/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/8097032@N02/8432909753/in/photostream/)
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.
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/2 "2013-01-31T22:24:09Z")
1. I don’t know. But…
2. 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.
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### Author:  [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/3 "2013-01-31T22:30:22Z")
They look like Geissler tubes. You use them to treat female hysteria.
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/4 "2013-01-31T22:37:08Z")
> [@CC](#):
>
> 1)The tube within a tube evokes notions of a distilling process.
Except that now that I look closer, it seems to be a closed system. So I take that back. I wonder what gas it’s filled with.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/5 "2013-01-31T22:42:33Z")
Early test equipment for neon signs?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/6 "2013-01-31T22:46:04Z")
It’s a strange grid ball… in glass. Collect the whole set.
I’d say it’s some kind of discharge tube for a specific frequency of EMR, maybe x-ray or similar.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/7 "2013-01-31T22:54:41Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/8 "2013-01-31T23:04:10Z")
> [@NitroPress](#):
>
> It’s a strange grid ball…
:smack: Oh, no! Not again!!!
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/9 "2013-01-31T23:08:54Z")
> [@NitroPress](#):
>
> I’d say it’s some kind of discharge tube for a specific frequency of EMR, maybe x-ray or similar.
That was my first thought, too.
Well, to be honest, it was my 2nd thought. My first thought was in the gutter.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/10 "2013-01-31T23:10:57Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/11 "2013-01-31T23:11:50Z")
> [@Palooka](#):
>
> They look like Geissler tubes…
Give the man a cigar!
[Ohh, pretty.](http://www.neatorama.com/2008/06/27/the-cathode-ray-tube-site/)
It’s also what. makes. time. travel. possible!
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/12 "2013-01-31T23:17:37Z")
> [@CC](#):
>
> :smack: Oh, no! Not again!!!
My thought exactly.
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### Author:  [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/13 "2013-01-31T23:18:49Z")
Whoa. Pretty. You’re now required to fire that baby up and send us some pictures.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/14 "2013-01-31T23:34:20Z")
Some [more info](http://www.jacmusic.com/techcorner/ARTICLES/English-neu/blueglow/blueglow.htm) on these babies.
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)?
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/15 "2013-01-31T23:35:12Z")
I think it’s a gas discharge tube and the water is there to absorb heat. But this is a guess.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/16 "2013-02-01T00:08:28Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/17 "2013-02-01T00:13:05Z")
it is gas discharge tube with a spiral tube in the center. person who made it was a lousy glass blower.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/18 "2013-02-01T01:10:00Z")
> [@CC](#):
>
> :smack: Oh, no! Not again!!!
Well, okay, maybe it’s the flux capacitor from INSIDE the strange grid ball…
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### Author:  [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/19 "2013-02-01T01:47:46Z")
High Voltage… you asked for it!
[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2a4gyJsY0mc/hqdefault.jpg "Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage" (Hi Res)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a4gyJsY0mc)
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-weird-bit-of-glassware-from-the-physics-lab/648960/20 "2013-02-01T07:54:47Z")
Geissler tube it is! Will attempt to feed it various levels of electrons when I have the time, and post pictures of the result. Thanks people!
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