2026-10-06 Royal Society "Science in the Making" archive
URL: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org
Queries: site search Crookes molecular high vacua (1,658 results; first page read); Gimingham.
Found [web]
- RR/8/151, referee's report by George Gabriel Stokes on the Bakerian Lecture "On the illumination of lines of molecular pressure, and the trajectory of molecules" by William Crookes, 15 January 1879, typescript, 2 pages. Catalogue description: "Recommended for publication in the 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'. The illustrations should be reproduced in colour." Published Phil. Trans. 1879, DOI 10.1098/rstl.1879.0065. Page images and a PDF download are offered on the item page. https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_8_151
- RR/8/152, referee's report by G. G. Stokes on "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" by Crookes, 22 April 1879, manuscript, 2 pages. Description: "Recommended for publication ... The paper is a sequel to the paper on the Bakerian Lecture [RR/8/151]. Has sent some remarks to the author, including the suggestion of a further clarifying experiment." https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_8_152
- Also in the results: J. A. Fleming, paper "On electric discharge between electrodes at different temperatures in air and in high vacua", 1889, PP/15/10; Crookes's letters to Sir John Herschel 1858-1863 (HS/5/307-315, earlier, on other subjects).
Gimingham: 3 results, all 1907-1908 papers involving C. T. Gimingham (a later, different person). Nothing on C. H. Gimingham's 1876 Sprengel-pump paper in this archive's search.
Not done
- The page images of RR/8/151 and RR/8/152 were not read (the description only was captured); the PDFs were not downloaded. The text of Stokes's remarks and his "further clarifying experiment" is the next thing to read (the images are online, free).
Bearing on the claims
- Claims 2, 3, 6 (dark space as mean free path; straight-line, magnetic deflection; same in all gases) were refereed by Stokes in 1879 and recommended for publication. Stokes's suggested "further clarifying experiment" bears directly on what was considered unsettled at the time. This is contemporary evaluation by a leading physicist (record of reception), not a test.