Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th 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.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An instrument, invented by Sir William Crookes, exhibiting the fluorescence produced by radium, containing a screen of fluorescent material, usually willemite (zinc silicate), on which a trace of radium is mounted, and a magnifying-glass in front of the screen. In darkness the screen shows a number of scintillating sparks caused by the impact of the radium rays on the willemite.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A small instrument containing a minute particle of a radium compound mounted in front of a fluorescent screen and viewed with magnifying lenses. The tiny flashes produced by the continual bombardment of the screen by the α rays are thus rendered visible.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun an early
device used forobserving individualnuclear disintegrations
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Looking into a spinthariscope is quite a marvelous experience, but there are certain disadvantages.
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15 The first scintillation counter was already constructed and Crookes proposed to call the instrument a "spinthariscope" from the Greek word spintharis — a scintillation. 16
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Crookes, a toy called the spinthariscope, on which radium particles impinge upon sulphide of zinc and make it luminous, induced him to associate the two sets of phenomena.
The World Set Free Herbert George 1914
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For comparison, here is a completely self-contained version of the spinthariscope simulation, showing off just how compact and efficient Mathematica code can be:
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Anyway, when I wrote an article about spinthariscopes for my Popular Science column, I needed a way to show in print what the inside of a spinthariscope looks like.
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The spinthariscope, invented and beautifully named by William Crookes in 1903, is a device for seeing individual atoms.
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A spinthariscope consists of a needle, similar to a watch hand, positioned in front of a zinc sulfide luminous screen, with a magnifying glass focused on the screen.
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A spinthariscope consists of a needle, similar to a watch hand, positioned in front of a zinc sulfide luminous screen, with a magnifying glass focused on the screen.
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In fact spinthariscope views, like all very dim phenomena, look black and white.
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The spinthariscope, invented and beautifully named by William Crookes in 1903, is a device for seeing individual atoms.
qms commented on the word spinthariscope
When bored to the end of your rope
Try a toy that will help you to cope:
Watch atoms decay
In their frivolous way
In the lens of a spinthariscope.
May 27, 2017