William Crookes

Also known as Sir William Crookes

British chemist and physicist (1832-1919)

OverviewAI-generated

William Crookes (1832–1919) was a British chemist, physicist, photographer, and psychic. Born and deceased in London, he was educated at Imperial College London and served as an employee of the University of Chester. His fields of work included chemistry, physics, spectroscopy, and spiritism. He was a member of the Royal Society, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Crookes received several honors, including the Copley Medal, the Royal Medal, and the Elliott Cresson Medal. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is buried at Brompton Cemetery.

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: William
Gender: male
Citizenship: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Place of birth: London
Place of death: London
Occupation: photographer
Educated at: Imperial College London
Employer: University of Chester
Languages spoken: English language
Award: Knight Bachelor
Notable work: Crookes radiometer
Field of work: spiritism
Image: Sir William Crookes 1906.jpg

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place of burial: Brompton Cemetery
member of: Romanian Academy
Commons category: William Crookes
date of birth: 1832-06-17
date of death: 1919-04-04
Commons gallery: William Crookes
nominated for: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
writing language: English language
Commons Creator page: William Crookes
floruit: 1853-01-01
contributed to creative work: Popular Science
P8168: Oberlin Conservatory of Music
has works in the collection: J. Paul Getty Museum

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Encyclopedic overview

Sir William Crookes (/krʊks/; 17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was an English chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing the Crookes tube, which was made in 1875. Observing cathode rays generated in these tubes, Crookes posited that "radiant matter" was a unique fourth state of matter, a foundational contribution to plasma physics.

He is credited with discovering the element thallium, announced in 1861, with the help of spectroscopy. He was also the first to describe the spectrum of terrestrial helium, in 1865. Crookes was the inventor of the Crookes radiometer, but did not discern the true explanation of the phenomenon he detected.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Crookes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.