Description

Crookes tube with a Maltese cross inside it to show the effect of magentic fields on the path of electrons. This tube is labeled "VIII VT-135."

With the development of early electric power systems in the late nineteenth century, electricity was at the forefront of scientific research and universities began offering courses in the new field. At MIT, students learned about electricity as part of the physics curriculum, and no physics classroom was complete without Crookes tubes, experimental apparatuses that demonstrated how electrons moved through gas. These colorful glowing tubes were the basis for many electrical demonstrations. The labeling on the base notes that it was one of the vaccum tubes that made up the teaching collection of Course VIII (physics).

Type

inscription

Location

on wood base

Method

Ink on paint

Text

VIII VT-135