[ALL FOUR IMPORTANT GASSIOT PAPERS, 1839-1859: CATHODE RAYS, PARTICLES, STRATIFICATION & THE ROOTS OF EARLY TELEVISION]: An Account of Experiments Made with the View of Ascertaining the Possibility of Obtaining a Spark before the Circuit of the Voltaic Battery is Completed [extracted from] The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol 130, Received Oct. 11, 1839. Read Dec. 19, 1839, [1840 publication], pp. 183-192 WITH A Description of an Extensive Series of the Water Battery; With an Account of Some Experiments Made in Order to Test the Relation of the Electrical and the Chemical Actions Which Take Place Before and After Completion of the Voltaic Circuit [extracted from] The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol 134, Received Dec. 7, 1843. Read Jan. 25, 1844, [1844 publication], pp. 39-52 WITH The Bakerian Lecture. On the Stratifications and Dark Band in Electrical Discharges as Observed in Torricellian Vacua [extracted from] The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol 148, Received Jan. 6, 1858. Read March 4, 1858 [1858 publication], pp. 1-16 WITH On the Stratifications in Electrical Discharges as Observed in Torricellian and other Vacua -- Second Communication [extracted from] The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 149, Received Dec.9, 1858. Read Jan 13, 1859, [1859 publication], pp. 137-160
London: Taylor and Francis. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITIONS OF 4 GASSIOT PAPERS (1839, 1844, 1858, & 1859 extracts) LEADING TO & CONCLUDING WITH IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS IN WHICH HE OBSERVED DEFLECTIONS OF CATHODE RAYS BY ELECTROSTATIC CHARGES & MAGNETISM. “Gassiot's work was particularly important in the demise of the contact theory of voltaic electricity” (Wikipedia).
In 1858 & 1859, John Gassiot reported experiments in which he observed deflections of cathode rays by electrostatic charges & magnetism. These findings (along with Plücker’s) provided the first evidence that ‘cathode rays’ carry an electric charge & might be particles. The roots of television can even be found in Gassiot’s research into electric discharges in rarefied gases. With Faraday & others, Gassiot’s work was part of the foundation of cathode-ray-tube technology which led much later to electron physics (Shiers, Early TV Bibliography).
When Gassiot began his research the identity of static & voltaic seemed likely. “But if so, voltaic, like static, electricity ought to produce sparks before the circuit was completed. In 1839 (in the 1st paper) Gassiot showed that even with a battery of 1,024 Daniell cells no sparks occurred. But if he used these cells either to charge a bank of nine Leyden jars in conjunction with a circuit interrupter & transformer, he could produce sparks before contact” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography V, 292).
In 1843 (the 2nd paper), Gassiot used “a massive battery of 3,520 zinc-copper rainwater cells [to produce] sparks through 0.020 inch of air, [attributing] his success to his great care in insulating the individual cells to prevent the loss of their electrical tension” (ibid). No one then knew if voltaic electricity was produced by contact between metals or by chemical reaction. “Attempting to decide this question Gassiot showed in this same paper that ‘the elements constituting the voltaic battery, when arranged in a series, assume polar tension before the circuit is completed….’
“Faraday’s discovery in 1838 of the negative dark space had revived interest in the glow discharge caused by conduction of electricity through gases at low pressure, but Gassiot’s interest in this discharge was directly stimulated by W. R. Grove’s almost incidental report in 1852 that the discharge was “striated by transverse non-luminous bands….
[Gassiot’s experiments] “showed that if enough care were exercised to achieve a sufficiently low pressure, striations could be produced in the Torricellian vacuum. Next he demonstrated that both a static electric machine & a Ruhmkorff coil with a Grove cell produced a striated discharge. This once again confirmed the identity of these two electricities. He also noticed that a powerful electromagnet divided the striations into what appeared to be two distinct columns” (ibid). He announced these discoveries in the 3rd paper (honored as the Royal Society’s Bakerian lecture for 1858.)
In it, he reports experiments in which he observed deflections of cathode rays by electrostatic charges & magnetism, here providing (with Plücker) the first evidence that ‘cathode rays’ carry an electric charge & might be particles” (ibid). The 1858 paper was followed with a second paper of the same name in 1859. In that, the 4th paper, “Gassiot demonstrated experimentally that the striae exist only within a narrower range of pressure & temperature than the luminous discharge itself; that a sufficiently low pressure ends the discharge but also that this relative vacuum does not conduct electricity; that changes in the electrical resistance of the external circuit change the discharge; & that at least sometimes the luminous discharge; is actually intermittent even though it appears to be continuous” (ibid). Item #1249
CONDITION: 4 bright & clean 1st edition papers as extracted from Philosophical Transactions. 4to. Two lithographed plates & a total of 27 in-text figures (induction coils, tubes, apparatus, striae). The 1858 plate has very slight, light spotting. Very good condition.
Price: $450.00