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Borderland Visionary: The Life of Sir William Crookes (Part 2)

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Article by Gerry Vassilatos — from Journal of Borderland Research (Volume LIV, No. 1, First Quarter 1998)



ELEMENTS

[Crookes's] astute enterprising aims had as their first order of priority a self sufficiency without aristocratic rule or restriction. He would be independent and self-employed. “Owe no man anything” was the lesson. As his father was successful in the art of tailor craft, so he would reach independent success in the scientific profession. Von Hoffmann had been a good and thorough master. He taught him well by example, and had highly favored and encouraged William. I am sure he insisted on calling him “Wilhelm.” In the isolation and efficient production of new chemical substances, there were new fortunes to be made.

William Crookes saw that this theme and atmosphere so contributed to the German industrial power base that to deny it was foolhardy. Worse, it might someday prove deadly. Competitive Germany had thoroughly recognized these scientific potentials, and were quick to implement every fruit of technical achievement. His strong opinion was contained in the notion that scientific labor should be justly and amply rewarded. Valuable scientific knowledge was not a free tithe, no mere resource. His nation needed to implement the free enterprise theme as rapidly as possible.

Exploitation was no longer to be tolerated. The German approach did not prohibit the exchange of information between and among persons of different class. Not so in England, where scientists and their technologies were viewed by royalty as exploitable resource for the personal extension of profit and power. By the end of the same decade, Germany would outstrip the English industrial facility on several key grounds. By the time the aristocrats were roused from their self deceiving slumber of peace, the whole of Great Britain had been shaken to its patristic roots.

Throughout the early history of this laboratory, Dr. William Crookes devoted himself to the discovery of industrial applications. The industrial production of new products was his aim, but this goal did not prevent him from exploring the natural world of chemistry. He was forever investigating new families of chemical substances which might prove in the future to be of strategic industrial importance. This native curiosity permitted him to be first in the discovery of new elements, compounds, and their possible use in some burgeoning industrial complex. In 1859 he initiated and directed the publication of The Chemical News, a scholarly journal whose aim it was to stimulate both the professional and amateur chemists into a new industrial revolution. He remained its principle editor for several years.

Serious theoretical and industrial information thus flowed from him and to him. The flow of such material was timely. In this theme and approach, Dr. Crookes explored the strange properties of selenium, a new “light sensing” element. The year was 1861, and selenium was the focus of several intriguing discoveries. Photoelectric effects were observed, and the extreme sensitivity of selenium to various spectra promised new industrial frontiers. It would therefore be imperative to be the principle provider of information on the topic area. In the eventuality of new applications, industrialists would want ready information on the manufacture of selenium components. William was always in the lead, especially when the more mystifying aspects of Nature made themselves apparent.

His intuitions were well rewarded when, in the next decade, selenium became the principle means by which certain highly desirable electrical analyzing instruments were made possible. In the process of studying selenium, William succeeded in discovering a new element. The element thallium was discovered in 1861, the result of a spectroscopic study. He recognized its unique strong green spectral line. Here was the word which Faraday himself had spoken. Here was the rarest of privileges, an honor granted to a very few individuals. How curious and fortunate that he had been chosen to assume such an exalted scientific poise in science history!

The discovery had its industrial merits. Lucrative merits. Poisonous metallic thallium, a bluish-white element, was utilized as a catalyst in the industrial manufacture of benzene and antiknock fuels. In its other chemical uses, thallium found prime application in the manufacture of flint, glass, artificial gems, scientific thermometers, mineralogical washing solutions, and pyrotechnics. In the following years Dr. Crookes developed sodium amalgamation methods for the commercial extraction of gold and silver from crushed ores, devised laboratory-worthy spectrum microscopes and polarization photometers, compiled planetary and stellar spectra, perfected astronomical photography, and hunted for new planets and asteroids.

So it was, in 1863, Dr. Crookes was elected to the Royal Society as a Fellow.

WHITE LIGHT

It was while investigating certain properties of thallium in vacuum (1873) that he chanced to observe a unique motional effect in a delicate torsion balance. The mere presence of light, whether from the sun or an artificial source, made impossible the routine task of weighing the element in vacuum. Dr. Crookes saw that, as soon as light was admitted into his balancing apparatus, the delicate device moved quite violently. In some cases, the torsion balance struck its containment walls. The mere presence of light so destabilized the delicate quartz fiber of his torsion balance, that he paused from this chemical study.

With external sources of illumination, he found that vacua of 40 millionths atmosphere allowed the most powerful rotation in the vanes. With internal sources of radiant heat, he found it possible to obtain much stronger rotations. These were observed (over 30 rotations per second) in hydrogen gas at 0.1 millionth atmospheres…a remarkable figure! The observation of movements with vanes coated on both sides in lampblack. . .a complete conundrum.. .could find few good explanations. Nor could the mechanistic theory attempt adequate explanation of the other numerous anomalies found in his study.

Deeper inquiry into the “mechanical action of light” led to a minor upheaval in the world of physics. The philosophical debate which discussed the “light pressure” remained a focal point for years, since a reversal of theoretical expectations was obtained. The fundamental anomaly which Dr. Crookes and others observed was that “light pressure” caused the repulsion of dark bodies, and the attraction of reflective bodies. This basic riddle occupied the thoughts of many physicists for several years. Dr. Crookes published his findings in a long series of articles and scientific essays; where the variables of vacuum, substance, vane shape, even or uneven surface heating, and applied spectral energy were each studied with the utmost care. (The complete record of his meticulous research may be obtained in collated form a. DeMeo).

As regard to the anomalies which he observed, Dr. Crookes was bold and decisive. “In some of the observations, the results accorded with theory; and although I could explain most of the anomalies, there were irregularities which seemed to point to another influence…” Another influence? To what influence did he possibly refer? He had eliminated all of the mechanistic variables with elaborate shields and baffles. In fact, these inconsistencies were never solved and, with attempts to give answer according to the mechanistic theory, were entirely unsatisfactory.

The prevailing view among physicists was that the opposite vane rotations and other behaviors were all the result of molecular bombardments within the glass bulb. Varieties of mechanical dynamics (gaseous flow, viscosity, “creep,” recoil) along vane surfaces were cited in explanation of each anomalies. But each such puzzle required new and (sometimes self-contradicting) applications of the mechanical principles. The glaring inability to provide satisfactory explanations for key phenomena lent an increasing number of scholars to assail the mechanistic view itself. Accusations of the obvious deficiency in this view, especially in explaining the newly discovered phenomena of the day, represented the first in a series of major failures.

The mechanistic view was shown to be inadequate in such cases as regards various phenomena of light and other radiant forms. The trend to save “mechanism” continued through the Twentieth Century. Renewed interest in this episode of scientific inadequacy has evoked response from several researchers such as Dr. James DeMeo. This esteemed researcher and author considers the strong likelihood that such anomalies are entirely due to more vitalistic influences. The possibility that the anomalous results of Crookes were entirely derived from external influence of his own presence (i.e. of biological energy) has provided the most potent reevaluation of the phenomenon to date.

TOYS

In all of these important considerations we see that the mechanistic view and its explanations usually results from highly valued topical effects of least importance, caused by more dominant fundamental energies of Nature. Yet it is well known that Sir William inclined more toward these vitalistic possibilities, having observed motions on his own approach to the device. And, while never publishing his deeper inclinations on these issues, it is known that his study of paranormal forces were commendable in his employ of numerous sensitive apparatus.. .not the least of which was his Radiometer.

The debate on these “light pressure” anomalies prompted Dr. Crookes to bring the effect out of the academic halls and into the public forum. His development of the Radiometer for serious scientific use was a matter of scientific record. But this serious application did not limit his wonderful imagination from teaching children of its marvels. So delightful was the Radiometer, or “light mill” as he often called it, that an inexpensive version was developed for toy shoppes. The small scientific “toy” has remained both a curiosity and amusement since its first appearance. Of it Nikola Tesla gave fond homage, referring to the delicate design as “the jewel of motors.”

This first of many such “toys” became a distinct Crookes trademark, an ultimate “soft” vengeance. “In this realm of marvels, this wonderland toward which scientific enquiry is sending out its pioneers, can anything be more astonishing than the delicacy of the instrumental aids which the workers bring with them?” Dr. Crookes was relentless in his provocation of the scientific aristocracy. His deliberate conception and deployment of a great many such “toys” was directed at their fancies. He would haunt both them and their children.. with scientific “amusements” and “toys.” Crookes was the great scientific toy maker, but delighted in presenting them to those who would acquire them as curiosities.

Simultaneously cunning and humorous, the designs produced for his laboratory a steady source of capital. They also accomplished their primary task of preserving the various vitalistic conundrums everywhere. Crookes was especially delighted that the aristocrats perceived these as amusing devices to purchase. With his guidance, and the “skillful manipulations of my friend, pupil, and associate, Mr. Charles H. Gimingham,” the manufacture of a vast laboratory demonstration assortment was offered to the scientific community at large. Both in England and abroad, in America, sales of these marvelous and glittering Victorian designs brought in an important steady revenue. These designs were distributed in North America by James Queen and Company, a scientific supply house based in Philadelphia.

BLACK SPACE

Sir William’s scientific approach differed from the growing convention. His approach appealed to the philosophical aesthetic, rather than to the engineering theme. His demonstrations were never intended to represent miniatures for technological exploitation. In the Victorian tradition, experimental models and demonstrations represented philosophical statements. Each was made to consolidate some principle, to embody an idea. Experimental models were statements in solid form. Such devices were therefore always referred to, not as industrial appliances, but rather as “philosophical toys”; his elegant and final answer to each challenging polemic.

Sir William delighted in contriving such designs in order to provide wordless proof of each thesis. In 1877, he began his most world-renown series of researches into the discharge of high voltage electricity through spaces of very high vacuum. The automatic mercury pumps of Herman Sprengel were much improved on behalf of Dr. Crookes, again by Charles H. Gimingham (1877). It was this improvement which stimulated the new and thrilling research, since prior to this time, the reasonably attained vacua were insufficient to produce the effects which were historically first obtained by Dr. Crookes.

His first major discovery was one typical of the style and flair by which he would be best remembered. Bringing the vacuum to its ultimate degree, he observed a mysterious “dark space”. This was the metaphor which most captivated his scientific attentions, a symbol and representative of space itself. But what was in that dark space? He called again for the lights to be withdrawn. They had seen his preliminary demonstration of phosphorescence, but had they comprehended the meaning of those phenomena? Had they pierced through to his exact intimations concerning that phenomena?

Were they able to realize that no phosphorescence, no light is ever emitted unless substances are completely wrapped and permeated in a blanket of absolute darkness? Did they appreciate that every condition of earthly light was first predicated in every instance by a permeation of radiant black space? His voice again rang into the dark space of the Hall. “I will endeavor to render the ‘dark space’ visible to all present. Here is a tube having a pole in the centre in the form of a metal disk, and the other poles at each end.” The large barreled tube which he stood near on the table was fitted with a disc-shaped central cathode, facing two opposed anodes; one at each end. Current was applied.

“When the exhaustion is good and the electrical pressure is high… the dark space is seen to extend for about an inch on both sides of the cathode.” The luminous gas residue withdrew to the anodes, being tightly squeezed upon their metal surfaces. But the dark space remained. Clearly, all matter had been forced away from this space, otherwise it would be glowing with light. In the dark space were rays whose power “…radiating from the pole with enormous velocity, assume properties so novel and so characteristic as to entirely justify the application of the term borrowed from Faraday… that of Radiant Matter.”

There were those who had always mistakenly believed that his Radiant Matter was simply composed of electrons, even as J. J. Thomson had sought to prove. But Sir William could never have disagreed more. To him, the dark space was filled with “dark light,” the precursor to every form of light known to the world of physics. It was the energetic presence of this dark light which provoked the phosphorescence of any substance placed within that dark space. As he was about to prove again, the dark space was completely devoid of inert, or massive particles. He would now separate the negative charges from the neutral dark light particles. The next few demonstrations were therefore designed to highlight his original statements concerning cathodic rays and precursory light.

The younger and more acrid members of the Society, the posh appointees of fashion and advantage, remained completely unimpressed with his outpourings. Their affections forever fawned among the acceptable conventions, since this poise always seemed to preserve and a greater social favor.. .an assured measure of decorum. For them, learning was unimportant. Face and keeping face was all.

Nevertheless, he remained courtly, noble, and somehow impossible not to watch. There was an unmistakable luminosity about the man which was also difficult to deny. It seemed to brighten whenever he spoke. “It is not unlikely that in the experiments here recorded maybe found the key of some as yet unsolved problems in celestial mechanics.. .we may argue from small things to great.” The audience saw his vague outline moving to the far side of the proscenium. They turned to see. Sir William now stood among a select series of vacuum tubes, also now decades old. With these large demonstration vessels, he would provoke his detractors into a renewed revelation of Radiant Matter.

EMERALD

He opened this section of the lecture with a simple statement. “To those, therefore, who admit the Radiant form of matter, no difficulty exists in the simplicity of the properties it possesses, but rather an argument in their favor.” He stood behind a second apparatus, a large V-shaped vacuum tube, and applied the voltage. “You see that the whole of the cathode arm is flooded with green light, but at the bottom stops sharply, and will not turn the comer to get to the anode…. Radiant Matter absolutely refuses to turn a corner.” By this it was understood that cathodic rays did not behave like ordinary electric charge, which would have eagerly sought the positive terminal. Many imagined that the high terminal velocity, imparted to these rays on ejection from the cathode, actually constrained the rays from seeking the electropositive terminal. They remained unconvinced that the rays were “rays of dark light.”

A third large bulb stood near this V-shaped tube. This bulb had a cathode which had been sealed in the side. Two anodes had been sealed at opposing angles and at differing distances from this cathode. The current was applied. “Notice,” he said, “the rays fall on the opposing side of the bulb, and produce a circular patch of green phosphorescent light. As I turn the bulb round you will all be able to see the green patch on the glass. Whether I now electrify the top or bottom anode, the rays remain unmoved from their path…. Radiant Matter darts in straight lines from the negative.”

The positive proximity to the ray path did not alter the beam in the least. Were these the light mass particles claimed by Thomson and his adherents, this ray path would have bent to the closer anode. But it did not. He beamed nearly as bright as one of his tubes. Now he turned to a very large diameter tube. His fourth proof for the existence of cathode light rays. It was long, fitted at one end with a split cathode. At the other end was a single anode. Through the center of this tube, a phosphor coated card was placed for the visual inspection of cathode rays in their progress across the space. “If the streams of Radiant Matter are simply built up of negatively electrified particles, then they will repel one another. But if the streams are neutral, then they will proceed independently of one another.”

Now switching the current on, two straight and brilliant green rays traced their thin paths across the card. The surprised reaction in his audience was delightful! Both rays moved independently of the other. Each touched the anode separately. Though ejected from the cathode, such emission did not conclude negative charge. Here was the proof. Sir William showed again that Radiant Matter was a neutral, light like form of energy.

A fifth globe used a large concave cathode with an opposed planar anode. Between this cathode and its small anode, a strip of silver-white metal was poised on a sealed support wire. The globe was very large in size. “The bright margin of the Dark Space becomes concentrated at the concave side of the cup to a luminous focus, and widens out at the convex side. When the dark space is very much larger than the cup, its outline forms an irregular ellipsoid, drawn in toward the focal point… the whole appearance being strikingly similar to the rays of the sun reflected from a concave mirror.”

“You will notice that the rays which project from the cup, and which cross in the centre, have a bright green appearance… the intensity of the color varying with the perfection of the vacuum.” That strange green light, what equally bizarre properties it displayed! “The cup is made of polished aluminum, and projects the rays to a focus. In this tube, the rays focus on a piece of iridio-platinum, supported in the centre of the bulb.” The globe was ingenious, an embodiment of genuine insight. Those who long believed the inadequacy of the Victorians regained a lost admiration.

“With only a slight application of the current, the interposed metal strip suddenly became white hot. I increase the intensity of the spark, the iridio-platinum glows with almost insupportable brilliancy, and at last melts.” This demonstration showed a remarkable and uncommon property of Radiant Matter. In its apparent ability to defy the Faraday electrostatic laws, it could not be composed of negative particles. Leaving internal surfaces in converging lines, electrons could never be brought to such a tight focus without producing noticeable repulsions.

This radiant behavior more exhibited the characteristics of light than particles of matter. The radiant extension of the material shape into the vacuum was visual. It took the form of straight and continuous lines. On closer examination, and in taking consideration of electrostatic principles, here was a very different kind of ray than that which J. J. Thomson quantified.

RADIANT MATTER

Sir William again called for the lights. His coup-de-grace was a large and bulbous “electric” Radiometer. This demonstration Radiometer gave a most remarkable demonstration of the mechanical energy exerted by the dark space itself, a singular anomaly. “The best pressure for this Electrical Radiometer is a little beyond that at which the Dark Space extends to the sides of the glass bulb.” He attached the leads with ginger delight. Here was a “toy” which he especially enjoyed sharing with others. “On continuing the exhaustion, the Dark Space further widens out and appears to flatten itself against the glass, whence the rotation becomes very rapid.” Current was applied, and the vanes spun themselves into a blur.

“You perceive the dark space behind each vane, and moving round with it?” When the power was increased, the blackness covered the vanes completely, and the vanes began to rotate into an amazing blur. Here was true light pressure. Light pressure in the apparent absence of any material agency. In this device, motion required the mere presence of the dark space. But what was in this special space? Was it the literal extension of the cathode into the ultravacuum? Was this a revelation of the continuity of matter in space? How did vacuum and electrostatic charge now combine to expand the material volume of the cathode, revealing it as force? This was nothing less than the Reichenbach thesis, where matter and its diverse qualities extends throughout space.

“Here we have actually touched the borderland.. .where Matter and Force seem to merge into one another, the shadowy realm between Known and Unknown, which for me has always had peculiar temptations. I venture to think that the greatest scientific problems of the future will find their solution in this Border Land, and even beyond; here, it seems to me, lie Ultimate Realities, subtle, far-reaching, wonderful.” What an epithet! One might well draw the title for a scientific journal from his words.

The vacuum tubes thus provided a most potent visual means for elucidating each of these concepts. This visible proof, which the mind grasped, offered the noisy intellect perhaps more analytic substance to disannul. But the combined effect of the performance would force the intellectual process to relax, while the holistic sensibilities once more brought in true and whole vision. The analytic process simply disintegrated the world into nothingness. This qualitative grasp represented a larger consciousness. As often as he shared this demonstration model, his audiences remained completely enthralled. He knew the all too human need for colors, sounds, and motions … for sensation. Sensation, whole experience, was the proper use of the mind.

His experiments had revealed to him that matter and material aggregates were supported in their very existence by non-inertial form. This what the fourth state of matter represented, and this is precisely why it was so vehemently rejected. Here was the heart of Vitalism yet again revealed! In this revolutionary view, molecules and atoms vibrated about a lattice of “continuous matter.” The mobile particles of inertia were simply associated with these continuous solids, and were not themselves the real forms we knew as matter at all. Platonic solids contaminated by inertia! Collectively, the demonstration was a marvel, a true philosophical argument in the best Victorian tradition. His last display caused quite a commotion.

The younger aristocratic members, those who most sought to maintain their composure, were now shifting ever so slightly in their seats. He noticed this with glee. How tragic! They refused to so much as grant him any facial expression whatsoever, a too common conceit. Noticing the ill-cloaked irritation of his young aristocrats, Sir William chuckled. He did not care so much that they were vexed, as much as he was delighted that his point pierced their defense. For them, his beaming joy was detestable. To this animosity they were entitled. Nevertheless, amor vincit omnia!

Were they aware of their German counterparts, whose industrial complex was about to march across Europe to the very borders of England? Alas, theirs was a sleep of ages, from which they would soon awaken in frightful need. But there would now be no prating command for protection and service. Science and other working class “servants” would now exact their wage, their price. Among the burgeoning scientific class, those who had suffered so much indignity, there was no urgent obligation to the dwindling Empire. The free option to emigrate to North America was now forever their chief tool of threat. And if it was not possible to maintain the common human right in England, there was dignity, honor, and profit to be made over that westward sea horizon. Command would remain among those scientifics, those laboring minds whose experience in life had not known idle advantage.

RARE EARTH

Sir William had undertaken a thorough research on rare earth elements in 1883, a field of study which would have enormous strategic and industrial importance in the mid-Twentieth Century. His original research in this capacity brought him to a consideration of radioactive phenomena and the possibility of elemental transmutation, yet another term which the proud desperately wished to eradicate from the scientific register.

But Dr. Crookes was the first to observe that elements contain isotopes, noting that pure elements were composed of differing atomic weights (1886). His conception of transmuting the elements was therefore founded on sound reasoning, and clarified observation. Each of these notions were in part realized with the discoveries of Ernest Rutherford.

Sir William began to consider the possibility that all matter, all elements, were “built up” by a primordial aether. Where would such a primordial aether be found? Sir William held out his hand toward his tubes, emphasizing the effects which had just illustrated the heart of his dissertation by wordless example. His glassy globes and bulbs, with their twirling little mica vanes, now sparkled in the eyes of those who watched them almost as much as did his rimmed glasses!

The prevailing “old school” view was indeed here, embodied before them. Sir William was a sprite, a truly “aethereal” character! Cheerful, merry, beaming, brilliant, lighter than air, he appeared to be aglow with the same white light seen in his mineral tubes. Equipped with his collection of unearthly globes and radiant crystals, he glittered a starry message of dreams… without words. Most realized that they had, quite unawares, fallen into one of the delightful little games of the grand old gentleman. Each slowly saw where he was guiding their vision. A few resisted, could not follow. They tuned their hearts away, and were instantly recognized. He was aglow, spying them out as if by magic. Most enjoyed the prospect of allowing him to guide their mind’s eye, and were drawn into his hopeful sphere of influence for a few more moments.

Those who best remembered the melody of his voice and life remembered a sense and mood from another time, from childhood’s forgotten world. The old gentleman spoke, a dark line from Royal Society history. “Faraday pointed out that matter existed in four states.. solid, liquid, gas, and radiant. He stated that as matter ascends in the scale of forms …it does not cease at the gaseous state. But the greater exertions Nature makes at each step of the change becomes greatest in the passage from gaseous to the radiant form…” He was not now averse to making formal statements concerning the luminiferous aether. Besides the fact that they had spent the evening observing effects-in-miniature of this aethereal gas, it was also an air in which he seemed to live and move quite comfortably.

Indeed, “the phenomena in these exhausted tubes reveal to physical science a new world …a world where matter exists in a fourth state, and where the corpuscular theory of light holds good.” He called attention to the strange green light, that which was observed with each manifestation of cathode rays. The green light had peculiar and persistent qualities. “This green phosphorescence is a subject which has occupied my thoughts, and I have striven to ascertain some of the laws governing its appearance.” This statement sent some of their minds reeling with implications.

“The spectrum of the green light is a continuous one …no difference can be detected by spectrum examination in the green light, whether the residual gas be nitrogen, hydrogen, or carbonic acid.” Most physicists had concluded the green light to be a property of the bombarded glassy matter. Its spectral lines were taken as proof of the “excitation” theory. But now Dr. Crookes was highlighting his spectral study, finding the curious constancy of that light regardless of gas or glass. Was this not some indication of the existence of a new “ultragaseous” element?

For some, the very admission of an ultragas was instantly recognized. But the lecture had perfectly led to this realization, and was whole in every aspect. From these elevated vantage points, one could hardly argue the existence of the luminiferous aether!

He continued, emboldened by the sense that the audience had entered that absorptive stage, where deep and permanent impressions could be made. “Between the gaseous and the ultragaseous state there can be traced no sharp boundary; the one merges imperceptibly into the other …nor can human or any other kind of organic life conceivable to us penetrate into regions where such ultragaseous matter may be supposed to exist.” Most mortals at least could not endure the ethereal air as he so effortlessly did.

“The position of the positive pole in the tube scarcely makes any difference in the direction or intensity of those lines of force which produce the green light.., and this green light is distinguished from ordinary light…it cannot be wrong to here apply the term emissive light.” The glowing globes had each spoken the thesis for him. He merely repeated those statements which he had published so many years ago. But no matter now, all minds asked the same question. All knew the identity of that pure light which issued forth from his highly electrified cathodes. There could be no question now. Those whose minds now grasped the whole message of the one who stood before them, fell silent. Why had no one ever considered these facts? One saw around his words, and conceded without a single protest. The unmistakable ring of truth.

Sir William suddenly appeared to have now satisfied himself that his message was well received. A teacher could not hope for more than this. For a few brief moments, the Hall felt silent.

“Time has not allowed me to undertake the whole of the task so vast and so manifold. I have felt compelled to follow out, as far as lay in my power, my original ideas. To these collateral questions, I must now invite the attention of my fellow-workers in Science. There is ample room for many inquirers.” It was not until a few began to clap and shout sharp words of approval that Sir William looked down once more. He smiled again and looked among them all. Standing among his glittering and delightful toys, he nodded his thanks at their approval. The green light, the melodious voice, the twinkling eyes, the silvery air, all remain suspended in memory.

Sir William Crookes left the spinning, glowing, scintillating magic of his wonderful little toys in the springtime. Nikola Tesla never forgot the date when his dear mentor and friend departed the material world. Shedding aside the crusader’s lantern to those in the scientific world, he took to the stars – the date was April 4, 1919. Those who grew to cherish his memory lifted his lantern before it fell into the relativistic dust. In so doing, one felt a twinkling joy where there should have been sadness. The great man’s passing left a sparkling tracework, and yes, like the joy which suddenly quickens and stimulates in the midst of night, it twinkles still!


All quotes were taken liberally from the following excellent sources:

  1. Selected Reprints of Articles Related To The Mechanical Action Of Light And The Radiometer, Sir William Crookes, (compilation reprint) by James DeMeo, Natural Energy Works, 1994.
  2. The Phenomenon of Spiritualism, Sir William Crookes, London, 1874, The Quarterly Journal of Science, (reprint Health Research, 1972).
  3. Radiant Matter, Sir William Crookes, Nature, 1879 (reprint Electric Spacecraft journal, 1995). Available from BSRF.


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