From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Geissler (May 26, 1814 - January 24, 1879) was a German physicist and inventor of the Geissler tube, a gläsernen low pressure gas-discharge tube. He worked in his parent's business and worked later in different German universities.

Geissler was born 1814 in Igelshieb, Thuringia, Saxe-Meiningen (Germany). Educated by his father, he was trained in the art of glassblowing (Glasbläserhandwerk) and was gifted for this trade and engineering. In 1850 he established a residence in Bonn and was based there in 1852 a workshop for physical and chemical apparatuses. In 1855 he already participated in the world exhibition in Paris and received gold medal. Particularly his instruments were praised such as normal thermometers, Hypsometer (altimeter), Vaporimeter as well as a hygrometer. Many orders soon already came from the Bonn university and Geissler became a respected man. Together with the physicist Julius Plücker, he published in 1852 a scientific paper "studies to the thermometry and related articles“. With the invention of the low pressure gas-discharge tubes he created, the basis for phosphor, X-raying, and spectral tubes could be investigated. It was universally recognized that he was inventor of the Geissler tube and was, with Julius Plücker, a pioneer of the electricity and vacuum engineering.

He went to the University of Bonn in 1868. He died on January 24, 1879, in Bonn, Prussia (Germany). His grave is on the old person cemetery. Geissler was famous for this inventions, which among other things include the first glass capillary thermometer. He also developed the Geissler tube and the Geissler pump. His inventions are forerunners of the modern phosphor lamps as well as the x-ray tubes.

Geissler is most remembered for the invention of sealed glass tubes (called Geissler tubes) from which he demonstrated with Julius Plucker emission of a bluish glow by exciting the gas with an induction coil. It was not uncommon for these tubes to display elaborate and artistic shapes, adding much to the optical effect. The device can be regarded as an ancestor of the fluorescent lamp. It was improved by Sir William Crookes and is thus commonly called a Crookes tube.

Publications

• Miller, H. A. (1945). Luminous tube lighting, dealing with the principles of the luminous tube, with a summary of the materials and equipment involved, and technical data concerning discharge-tube light sources. London: G. Newnes.
• Kassabian, M. K. (1910). Roentgen rays and electro-therapeutics: with chapters on radium and phototherapy. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.
• Davis, H. B. O. (1981). Electrical and electronic technologies: a chronology of events and inventors to 1900. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press.
• Phillips, C. E. S. (1897). Bibliography of X-ray literature and research, 1896-1897: being a ready reference index to the literature on the subject of roentgen or X-rays. London: The Electrician Print. and Pub. Co.

General information

• The Cathode Ray Tube site