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[[File:Crookes tube.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Two views of the Crookes tubes]]
[[File:William Crookes and his tube.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Sir William Crookes and his glowing tubes gained notoriety, as shown by this 1902 caricature in Vanity Fair. The caption read "ubi Crookes ibi lux", which in Latin means roughly, "Where there is Crookes, there is light".]]
'''Radiant Matter''' is the term used to describe what British physicist [[William Crookes]] stated was a fourth state of matter, in a time when the atom was thought to be a small solid ball, indivisible and without motion. His theories were confirmed by the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th when it was discovered that what Crookes observed was a flow of electrons in a medium containing ''plasma'', the fourth state of matter.  It is now known that 99.9% of the matter in the universe is plasma.


Crookes's experimental work in this field was the foundation of discoveries which eventually changed the whole of chemistry and physics.


Cathode rays (also called an electron beam or e-beam) are streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes.
== Crookes' experiment ==
By the 1870s, British physicist William Crookes and others were able to evacuate tubes to a lower pressure, below 10−6 atm. These were called Crookes tubes. Faraday had been the first to notice a dark space just in front of the cathode, where there was no luminescence. This came to be called the "cathode dark space", "Faraday dark space" or "Crookes dark space". Crookes found that as he pumped more air out of the tubes, the Faraday dark space spread down the tube from the cathode toward the anode, until the tube was totally dark. But at the anode (positive) end of the tube, the glass of the tube itself began to glow.
 
What was happening was that as more air was pumped from the tubes, the electrons could travel farther, on average, before they struck a gas atom. By the time the tube was dark, most of the electrons could travel in straight lines from the cathode to the anode end of the tube without a collision. With no obstructions, these low mass particles were accelerated to high velocities by the voltage between the electrodes. These were the cathode rays.
By the 1870s the nature of [[electricity]] was unknown, and many experiments were done to determine its nature. Tubes with a low vacuum, possessing two metal electrodes (one at either end) were commonly employed for this purpose. When a high voltage was applied between the electrodes, a glow filling the tubes was observed. This glow was said to be the effect of "cathode rays."
When they reached the anode end of the tube, they were travelling so fast that, although they were attracted to it, they often flew past the anode and struck the back wall of the tube. When they struck atoms in the glass wall, they excited their orbital electrons to higher energy levels, causing them to fluoresce. Later researchers painted the inside back wall with fluorescent chemicals such as zinc sulfide, to make the glow more visible.
[[File:Crookes tube.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Two views of the Crookes tubes]]
Cathode rays themselves are invisible, but this accidental fluorescence allowed researchers to notice that objects in the tube in front of the cathode, such as the anode, cast sharp-edged shadows on the glowing back wall. In 1869, German physicist Johann Hittorf was first to realize that something must be travelling in straight lines from the cathode to cast the shadows. Eugen Goldstein named them cathode rays.
William Crookes was able to generate a higher vacuum in tubes (known as "Crookes Tubes") and found out that as he pumped more air out of the tubes, they became totally dark, except for the anode end, where the glass of the tube itself began to glow. This showed that the cathode rays traveled in straight lines from the cathode (negative) end to the anode (positive), causing fluorescence in objects upon which they impacted, and producing great heat.
[edit]Discovery of the electron
 
At this time, atoms were the smallest particles known, and were believed to be indivisible. What carried electric currents was a mystery. During the last quarter of the 19th century many experiments were done to determine what cathode rays were. There were two theories. Crookes and Artur Shuster believed they were particles of "radiant matter", that is, electrically charged atoms. German scientists Eilhard Wiedemann, Heinrich Hertz and Goldstein believed they were "aether waves", some new form of electromagnetic radiation, and were separate from what carried the electric current through the tube.
At the time there were two theories to explain the nature of the cathodic rays. Heinrich Hertz and others believed they were "aether waves," while Crookes insisted they were formed by particles. He maintained they were a fourth state of matter where atoms were electrically charged. The debate was resolved in 1897 when Sir J. J. Thomson established the particle-nature of the rays. However, he discovered they were not atoms, but a new particle (the first subatomic particle to be discovered) which was named "electron". Thus, Thomson proved that the cathode rays are streams of electrons.
The debate was resolved in 1897 when J. J. Thomson measured the mass of cathode rays, showing they were made of particles, but were around 1800 times lighter than the lightest atom, hydrogen. Therefore they were not atoms, but a new particle, the first subatomic particle to be discovered, which he originally called "corpuscle" but was later named electron, after particles postulated by George Johnstone Stoney in 1874. He also showed they were identical with particles given off by photoelectric and radioactive materials.[2] It was quickly recognised that they are the particles that carry electric currents in metal wires, and carry the negative electric charge of the atom.
 
Thomson was given the 1906 Nobel prize for physics for this work. Philipp Lenard also contributed a great deal to cathode ray theory, winning the Nobel prize for physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and their properties.
The full description of what happens in a Crookes tube is complicated because it contains a non-equilibrium plasma where electrons are moving an interacting with positive ions and neutral atoms. The details were not fully understood until the development of ''plasma physics'' in the early 20th century.
[edit]Vacuum tubes
 
The gas ionization (or cold cathode) method of producing cathode rays used in Crookes tubes was unreliable, because it depended on the pressure of the residual air in the tube. Over time, the air was absorbed by the walls of the tube, and it stopped working.
The Crookes tubes were used in many historic experiments. For example, in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the X-rays emanating from Crookes tubes. Eventually, these tubes were superseded by the electronic vacuum tubes, in whose development [[Thomas Edison]] played an important role.
A more reliable and controllable method of producing cathode rays was investigated by Hittorf and Goldstein,[citation needed] and rediscovered by Thomas Edison in 1880. A cathode made of a wire filament heated red hot by a separate current passing through it would release electrons into the tube by a process called thermionic emission. The first true electronic vacuum tubes, invented around 1906, used this hot cathode technique, and they superseded Crookes tubes. These tubes didn't need gas in them to work, so they were evacuated to a lower pressure, around 10−9 atm (10−4 P). The ionization method of creating cathode rays used in Crookes tubes is today only used in a few specialized gas discharge tubes such as krytrons.
 
== Blavatsky on radiant matter ==
 
[[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|H. P. Blavatsky]] maintained that Crookes' discovery of "radiant matter" proved that there exist more refined states of matter (or particles) than the "solid atoms" of her time. She argued that [[electricity]] was not an immaterial force, but a form of matter (later known as the electron) which does not have the properties assigned to "dense matter":
 
<blockquote>But what is in reality Matter? We have seen that it is hardly possible to call electricity a force, and yet we are forbidden to call it matter under the penalty of being called unscientific! . . . And, as Professor Crookes has now succeeded in refining gases to a condition so ethereal as to reach a state of matter “fairly describable as ultra-gaseous, and exhibiting an entirely novel set of properties,” why should the Occultists be taken to task for affirming that there are beyond that “ultra gaseous” state still other states of matter; states, so ultra refined, even in their grosser manifestations—such as electricity under all its known forms—as to have fairly deluded the scientific senses, and let the happy possessors thereof call electricity—a Force!<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. IV (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1991), 221-222.</ref></blockquote>
 
== The Mahatmas and Radiant Matter ==
 
[[William Crookes|Crookes]] was a member of the [[Theosophical Society]] and for a time was one of the five counselors of the T.S. [[Morya|Mahatma M.]] says that it was his occult research which led to his discovery of radiant matter:
 
<blockquote>And Crookes — has he not brought science within our hail in his “radiant matter” discovery? What but occult research was it that ''led'' him first to that.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in Chronological Sequence'' No. 48 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 134. See [[Mahatma Letter No. 48#Page 3|Mahatma Letter No. 48 page 3]].</ref></blockquote>
 
[[Koot Hoomi|Master K. H.]] maintained that the "fourth state of matter" was not the ultimate one, but that there were higher states to be discovered:
 
<blockquote>Western Science has still three additional states of matter to discover. . . . If Mr. Crookes would penetrate Arcana beyond the corridors the tools of modern science have already excavated, let him — Try. He tried and found the Radiometer; tried again, and found Radiant matter; may try again and find the “Kama-rupa” of matter — its fifth state. But to find its Manas he would have to pledge himself stronger to secrecy than he seems inclined to.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 48 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 111.</ref></blockquote>
 
== See also ==
*[[Phlogiston]]
*[[William Crookes]]
 
==Online resources==
===Articles===
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_16/November_1879/On_Radiant_Matter_I# On Radiant Matter by W. Crookes] at Wikisource
 
== Notes ==
<references/>
 
[[Category:Scientific concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]

Latest revision as of 02:30, 16 September 2021

Sir William Crookes and his glowing tubes gained notoriety, as shown by this 1902 caricature in Vanity Fair. The caption read "ubi Crookes ibi lux", which in Latin means roughly, "Where there is Crookes, there is light".

Radiant Matter is the term used to describe what British physicist William Crookes stated was a fourth state of matter, in a time when the atom was thought to be a small solid ball, indivisible and without motion. His theories were confirmed by the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th when it was discovered that what Crookes observed was a flow of electrons in a medium containing plasma, the fourth state of matter. It is now known that 99.9% of the matter in the universe is plasma.

Crookes's experimental work in this field was the foundation of discoveries which eventually changed the whole of chemistry and physics.

Crookes' experiment

By the 1870s the nature of electricity was unknown, and many experiments were done to determine its nature. Tubes with a low vacuum, possessing two metal electrodes (one at either end) were commonly employed for this purpose. When a high voltage was applied between the electrodes, a glow filling the tubes was observed. This glow was said to be the effect of "cathode rays."

Two views of the Crookes tubes

William Crookes was able to generate a higher vacuum in tubes (known as "Crookes Tubes") and found out that as he pumped more air out of the tubes, they became totally dark, except for the anode end, where the glass of the tube itself began to glow. This showed that the cathode rays traveled in straight lines from the cathode (negative) end to the anode (positive), causing fluorescence in objects upon which they impacted, and producing great heat.

At the time there were two theories to explain the nature of the cathodic rays. Heinrich Hertz and others believed they were "aether waves," while Crookes insisted they were formed by particles. He maintained they were a fourth state of matter where atoms were electrically charged. The debate was resolved in 1897 when Sir J. J. Thomson established the particle-nature of the rays. However, he discovered they were not atoms, but a new particle (the first subatomic particle to be discovered) which was named "electron". Thus, Thomson proved that the cathode rays are streams of electrons.

The full description of what happens in a Crookes tube is complicated because it contains a non-equilibrium plasma where electrons are moving an interacting with positive ions and neutral atoms. The details were not fully understood until the development of plasma physics in the early 20th century.

The Crookes tubes were used in many historic experiments. For example, in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the X-rays emanating from Crookes tubes. Eventually, these tubes were superseded by the electronic vacuum tubes, in whose development Thomas Edison played an important role.

Blavatsky on radiant matter

H. P. Blavatsky maintained that Crookes' discovery of "radiant matter" proved that there exist more refined states of matter (or particles) than the "solid atoms" of her time. She argued that electricity was not an immaterial force, but a form of matter (later known as the electron) which does not have the properties assigned to "dense matter":

But what is in reality Matter? We have seen that it is hardly possible to call electricity a force, and yet we are forbidden to call it matter under the penalty of being called unscientific! . . . And, as Professor Crookes has now succeeded in refining gases to a condition so ethereal as to reach a state of matter “fairly describable as ultra-gaseous, and exhibiting an entirely novel set of properties,” why should the Occultists be taken to task for affirming that there are beyond that “ultra gaseous” state still other states of matter; states, so ultra refined, even in their grosser manifestations—such as electricity under all its known forms—as to have fairly deluded the scientific senses, and let the happy possessors thereof call electricity—a Force![1]

The Mahatmas and Radiant Matter

Crookes was a member of the Theosophical Society and for a time was one of the five counselors of the T.S. Mahatma M. says that it was his occult research which led to his discovery of radiant matter:

And Crookes — has he not brought science within our hail in his “radiant matter” discovery? What but occult research was it that led him first to that.[2]

Master K. H. maintained that the "fourth state of matter" was not the ultimate one, but that there were higher states to be discovered:

Western Science has still three additional states of matter to discover. . . . If Mr. Crookes would penetrate Arcana beyond the corridors the tools of modern science have already excavated, let him — Try. He tried and found the Radiometer; tried again, and found Radiant matter; may try again and find the “Kama-rupa” of matter — its fifth state. But to find its Manas he would have to pledge himself stronger to secrecy than he seems inclined to.[3]

See also

Online resources

Articles

Notes

  1. ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. IV (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1991), 221-222.
  2. ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in Chronological Sequence No. 48 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 134. See Mahatma Letter No. 48 page 3.
  3. ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 48 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 111.
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