RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

2026-10-06 Internet Archive (archive.org)

The normal search page gives no text to the browser tools, so the advanced-search JSON endpoint was used (in Chrome). Queries: 1. creator:(Crookes, William) (179 hits; first 60 listed: mostly Chemical News volumes, spiritualism books, Diamonds, Wheat Problem; not specific). 2. Crookes AND ("radiant matter" OR "high vacua" OR "molecular pressure" OR "electricity in transitu" OR "radiant matter spectroscopy") (32 hits). 3. Item metadata for puluj-4th-state-of-matter.

Found [web] (identifiers; item pages are https://archive.org/details/{identifier})

Crookes's own technical papers (Royal Society scans, free): - philtrans00483090 / paper-doi-10_1098_rspl_1878_0098: "On the Illumination of Lines of Molecular Pressure, and the Trajectory of Molecules" (Proc. R. Soc. abstract 1878) - philtrans06253890: The Bakerian Lecture, same title (Phil. Trans. 1879) - philtrans01254953 / paper-doi-10_1098_rspl_1878_0158: "Contributions to Molecular Physics in High Vacua" (1878) - philtrans07220971: "Contributions to Molecular Physics in High Vacua. Magnetic Deflection of Molecular Trajectory. Laws of Magnetic Rotation in High and Low Vacua. Phosphorogenic Properties of Molecular Discharge" (1879) - philtrans02850338 / paper-doi-10_1098_rspl_1878_0139: "On Electrical Insulation in High Vacua" (1878) - philtrans05508605 / paper-doi-10_1098_rspl_1881_0022: "On Discontinuous Phosphorescent Spectra in High Vacua" (1881) - philtrans07183868 / paper-doi-10_1098_rspl_1883_0045: Bakerian Lecture 1883, "On Radiant Matter Spectroscopy. A New Method of Spectrum Analysis"; further "Radiant Matter Spectroscopy" papers 1884-1887 (Samarium; Erbia; Earth Y-alpha; Residual Glow): philtrans04583679, philtrans06495529, philtrans07847269, philtrans04918312, philtrans06144944, philtrans07280483 (yttrium) - paper-doi-10_1038_022101a0 and paper-doi-10_1038_022125a0: Nature 22 (1880), "Contributions to Molecular Physics in High Vacua" Other copies of the lecture: onradiantmatterl00croorich (1879 pamphlet, microform), OnRadiantMatter, ONRADIANTMATTERSirWILLIAMCROOKES, 1880-crookes-radiant-matter. Obituary: 20210818-220158, "Sir William Crookes obituary". Related: - puluj-4th-state-of-matter: "Puluj Radiant Electrode Matter and the so-called Fourth State", creators "Dr. J Puluj, Frank Jones, Jeff Behary", collection electrotherapy-museum, uploaded 2021-08-23, subjects Radiant Matter, X-Rays, Plasma, Crookes Tubes, Cathode Rays. Appears to be an English translation of Puluj's 1883 monograph (translator presumably Frank Jones; not confirmed). - Theosophy talks: "Boris De Zirkoff Seminar On Science & Theosophy" (1974); Ralph Hannon, "HP Blavatsky & Sir William Crookes: Elementals & Electrons" (1983).

Not done

  • No file downloaded (see sites.md: downloads need the owner's go-ahead). The full texts were not read in this run.

Bearing on the claims

  • All claims: the Phil. Trans. papers are Crookes's own detailed accounts. They should give the pressures, apparatus and the measured "laws of magnetic rotation" that the popular lecture lacks (claims 2, 3, 6), and his first statements on phosphorescence spectra (claim 4: the ruby line, 6,895).
  • The "Radiant Matter Spectroscopy" series (1883-1887) shows Crookes kept using the radiant-matter phosphorescence as a tool of chemical analysis (rare earths). It continues the claim-4 work.
  • Puluj translation: contemporary rival theory (priority 3).