RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

2026-10-06 Google search (Chrome) - Willams-Crookes

Investigator run 1, STEP I. Google used as the finder for the other sites in this run. Findings are leads, not verdicts.

Queries and what they turned up

  1. Crookes "On the illumination of lines of molecular pressure" Bakerian 1878 Philosophical Transactions - Royal Society Publishing: the Bakerian Lecture, Phil. Trans. 170 (1879), DOI 10.1098/rstl.1879.0065 [web] https://royalsocietypublishing.org (DOI given on the Royal Society archive page, see makingscience note). - Free PDF on a George Mason University course page, 32 pages, "The Bakerian Lecture. William Crookes, F.R.S. On the Illumination of Lines of Molecular Pressure, and the Trajectory of Molecules", first paragraph numbered 486 [web] http://prubin.physics.gmu.edu (path under /grad/ ... Crookes; full URL not captured from the results page). Not downloaded (see sites.md, downloads). - A. E. Woodruff, "William Crookes and the Radiometer", Isis, 1966 (JSTOR), cited 43 times [web] https://www.jstor.org/stable (stable id not captured). Notes the Bakerian Lecture's paragraphs are numbered from 486, i.e. it continues a numbered series of Crookes papers. - G. Dörfel, "Crookes' Radiometer und Geißlers Lichtmühle", 2003, Springer (German) [web] https://link.springer.com.
  2. Crookes "Contributions to molecular physics in high vacua" 1879 OR 1880 - Phil. Trans. 1879 Part II, paper XVI, "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"; abstract in Proc. R. Soc. 28 (1879) 477-, received 27 March 1879 [web] royalsocietypublishing.org; jstor.org. - Nature vol. 22 (1880) pp. 101-104 and 125-128, "Contributions to Molecular Physics in High Vacua" [web] https://www.nature.com. - French abstract in Journal de Physique Théorique et Appliquée [web] https://jphystap.journaldephysique.org. - Royal Society referee reports by G. G. Stokes (followed up on makingscience.royalsociety.org).
  3. Gimingham Crookes assistant Sprengel pump radiometer - Chemistry World, A. Sella, "Crookes' tube", 18 March 2015: Crookes used "Gimingham's new pump" (several Sprengel pumps in parallel) [web] https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/8381.article - IET Archives blog, 10 May 2017 (followed up, see ietarchivesblog note). - Notes and Records of the Royal Society, "Technical assistance in the world of London science, 1850-1900" (2008, vol. 62 no. 1 p. 51): "Crookes passed on his knowledge to his assistant, Charles Gimingham ... who became an expert glassblower" [web] https://royalsocietypublishing.org (Notes Rec.) - taminglightning.net PDF, "Crookes' Radiometer and Geissler's Light-Mill" (possibly an English version of Dörfel 2003; not confirmed): "Mr. C. H. Gimingham, who was his assistant from 1870 to 1882. Crookes allowed him to report to the Royal Society on technical improvements to the Sprengel ..." [web] https://taminglightning.net/... /uploads/2025/10 (full path not captured). Note: 1870-1882 here vs. "12 years" from age 16 (1869) to July 1881 in the IET obituary extract; the two dates differ by about a year. - Smithsonian Institution Archives blog, "The Smithsonian's First Radiometers", 25 April 2019 [web] https://siarchives.si.edu
  4. Crookes "radiant matter" Goldstein Hertz cathode rays controversy molecules versus ether waves - U. Busch 2023, Z Med Phys (followed up, see pmc note). - T. Arabatzis, "Cathode Rays" (encyclopedia entry, 4 pp.) [web] http://scholar.uoa.gr (PDF); cites Crookes, "On Radiant Matter", Nature 20, 419-423, 436-440 (1879). - Notes Rec. R. Soc., 18 Dec 2006, "Cromwell Varley FRS, electrical discharge and Victorian ..." (whether rays "were torrents of molecules or waves in the ether") [web] https://royalsocietypublishing.org. Varley (1871) is an earlier British proponent of the particle view. - Theosophy Wiki, "Radiant Matter": "H. P. Blavatsky maintained that Crookes' discovery of 'radiant matter' proved that there exist more refined states of matter" [web] https://theosophy.wiki/en/Radiant_Matter (page itself blocked; snippet only). - superphysics.org, "Cathode Rays and Radioactive Bodies" [web] https://www.superphysics.org/... chapter-09 (not opened).
  5. Crookes "fourth state of matter" 1879 plasma Langmuir 1928 origin of term - Wikipedia "Plasma (physics)": Langmuir introduced "plasma" for ionised gas in 1928; Crookes's 1879 "fourth state" cited as the earlier identification [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics) (snippet). - plasma-universe.com timeline: "1879. Sir William Crookes discovers 'radiant matter' (after Faraday) and also calls it the 'Fourth State of Matter'" [web] https://www.plasma-universe.com - plasmas.org: "Sir William Crookes ... identified a fourth state of matter, now called plasma, in 1879" [web] http://www.plasmas.org/what-are-plasmas - Bearing: modern plasma-physics sources characterise Crookes's "fourth state" as the precursor of the plasma concept. Note for reviewers: Crookes's own definition (deep read) is a collisionless regime of neutral-gas kinetic theory (mean free path comparable to the vessel), not an ionised gas; the modern borrowing uses the same phrase for a different defining property.
  6. Crookes paddle wheel tube "radiant matter" momentum heating explanation Thomson 1903 OR Starling OR replication - Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations, "CRT Paddle Wheel" (followed up, see harvard note). - HandWiki/Wikipedia: J. J. Thomson (1903) calculated electron momentum would turn the wheel about one revolution per minute.
  7. "Technical assistance in the world of London science" Gimingham Crookes Notes and Records - Hannah Gay, "Science and Opportunity in London, 1871-85: The Diary of ..." , History of Science 41 (2003), DOI 10.1177/007327530304100403 [web] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/007327530304100403 (blocked; whose diary is not captured; the Notes Rec. snippet says the 2008 article discusses "Gimingham, younger brother of Crookes's assistant Charles Gimingham"). - Hannah Gay, "Invisible resource: William Crookes and his circle of support, 1871-81", British Journal for the History of Science 29(3) (1996) 311-336 [web] https://www.cambridge.org/core (and JSTOR).
  8. Hannah Gay "William Crookes and his circle of support" 1996 British Journal for the History of Science abstract - R. K. DeKosky, "William Crookes and the quest for absolute vacuum in the 1870s", 1983 (cited 38) [web] https://philpapers.org/rec/DEKWCA - "William Crookes in Wonderland: Scientific Spiritualism and the ..." (University of Chicago Press chapter) [web] https://www.universitypressscholarship.com (author not captured). - Woodruff 1966 on PhilPapers [web] https://philpapers.org/rec/WOOWCA-2
  9. Crookes "radiant matter" electrons later view 1897 OR 1898 OR 1891 "Electricity in transitu" presidential address - Buchwald and Warwick (eds.), "Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics" (Dibner series), discusses Crookes's 1891 presidential address and his later identification of radiant matter with electrons [web] https://dokumen.pub (unauthorised copy site; cite the book, not the copy). - Cambridge UP, "Physics and Psychics" bibliography lists Crookes, "Address by the President", Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research vol. 12 (1896) [web] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books
  10. Crookes "radiant matter now passes as" - Crookes, quoted in obituary notices: "What I then called 'Radiant Matter' now passes as 'Electrons,' a term coined by Dr. Johnstone Stoney to represent the separate units of electricity" [web] B. Dyer, Obituary notices, Journal of the Chemical Society 1920, https://pubs.rsc.org ; also Royal Society "Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased" (JSTOR); also a Nature PDF on Dolnośląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa, https://dbc.wroc.pl (date not captured). The original place and date of Crookes's statement were not identified in this run.

How this bears on the claims

  • Claims 1-6 (all): the Bakerian Lecture (Dec 1878, Phil. Trans. 1879) and "Contributions to molecular physics in high vacua" (1879) are the technical papers behind the popular Sheffield lecture. They should hold what the lecture leaves out (pressures, apparatus details, the magnetic-rotation "laws").
  • Claim 4 (negatively electrified molecules): Crookes's own later statement that radiant matter "now passes as electrons" is the inventor's own reinterpretation; reviewers should note it.
  • Claim 5 (mechanical force): Thomson 1903 and Starke 1900 give a different mechanism (radiometric heating) for the paddle wheel (see harvard note).