Here at SPARK Museum in downtown Bellingham, we sometimes refer to them as “ships in a bottle.”
The intricate glass tubes are individual works of art — swirling, colorful designs that truly could be ends in themselves, given how beautiful they are.
But as gorgeous as Geissler and Crookes tubes are, they are much more than things to look at. They are, in fact, a critical step on the progress of invention over the past 150 years.
In fact, we wouldn’t have had televisions and many other inventions without them.
“What I find most interesting is they were just another way to see the energy,” says Tana Granack, SPARK Museum’s director of operations. “What was invisible is now wondrously observable and even measurable.”
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