spinthariscope
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- noun A device for observing individual scintillations produced by ionizing radiation, as one consisting of a tube with a magnifying lens at one end and a phosphorescent screen and speck of radioactive salt at the other.
Examples
-
Looking into a spinthariscope is quite a marvelous experience, but there are certain disadvantages.
-
The first scintillation counter was already constructed and Crookes proposed to call the instrument a "spinthariscope" from the Greek word spintharis — a scintillation.
-
The spinthariscope, invented and beautifully named by William Crookes in 1903, is a device for seeing individual atoms.
-
An antique spinthariscope, like the one pictured above, can be quite “hot.”
Note
The word 'spinthariscope' comes from the Greek 'spintharis', ("spark") + '-scope.'
