Object Details
- Kunz, Jakob
- Description
- Jakob Kunz (1874-1938), an important pioneer in the development of photoelectric cells, made this potassium hydride cell in the 1920s. Attached to the 12-inch refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, it used by Joel Stebbins, by Gerald Kron, and by Mary Elizabeth Cummings.
- Born and trained in Switzerland, Kunz began teaching physics at the University of Illinois in 1909. Two years later, he convinced Joel Stebbins, director of the astronomical observatory on campus, to use one of his photocells to chart the fluctuating magnitudes of eclipsing binary stars. The experiment was indeed a success. In the words of Gerald Kron, an astronomer who would later work with Stebbins—and who gave this example to the Smithsonian—Stebbins "furnished the continuity that lead to the permanent establishment of photoelectric photometry as one of the most important tools of modern astronomers."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- 1920s
- ID Number
- 1982.0623.01
- catalog number
- 1982.0623.01
- accession number
- 1982.0623
- Object Name
- quartz potassium-hydride photocell
- Measurements
- overall in box: 4 1/2 in x 10 1/4 in x 4 1/8 in; 11.43 cm x 26.035 cm x 10.4775 cm
- place made
- United States: Illinois, Urbana
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Science & Scientific Instruments
- Record ID
- nmah_1816603
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b2-ce99-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
