Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1896 — PROF. WILLIAM CROOKES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROF. WILLIAM CROOKES.

Kan Whose Genius Made Boentgea't Discovery Possible. Professor William Crookes, whose scientific genius made possible the discovery of the wonderful light of Roentgen. has been widely known for yean. Indeed, there are few men who have achieved more brilliant and valuable results in the laboratory than the discoverer of the “tube” which is now so

much talked of. Professor Crookes was born In London sixty-four years ago, and in his boyhood became interested In photography. He took a course In the Royal College of Chemistry under Dr. Hoffman, and soon became assistant to his tutor. At 22 he was appointed superintendent of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford. In 1859 he founded the Chemical News, and in 1864 became the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science. Professor Crookes was born with a love for original search. He discovered the new metal thallium while examining the residues from a sulphuric add works. He was then made a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1872 he developed many interesting matters in his investigations on “repulsion resulting from radiation.” In 1877 be invented the otheoscope. In a paper that year before the Royal Society he said he had succeeded in obtaining a vacuum so nearly approaching perfection that the pressure tn it was only 0.4 millionth of an atmosphere. It was found that in such an extreme vacuum gases pass into an ultragaseous state, which Professor Crookes described as “radiant matter.” It was these vacua that made possible the Incandescent lamp. He has written a small library, every book of which is of value to experimental and commercial science. Professor Crookes' name can never be dissociated from Roentgen’s discovery, because his “tube” was its basis. He Is, perhaps, the most patient and painstaking experimenter of modern times.

PROF. WILLIAM CROOKES.