| Heinrich Geissler | |
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Heinrich Geißler
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| Born | May 26, 1814 Igelshieb,(Neuhaus am Rennweg) Thuringia, Saxe-Meiningen |
| Died | January 24, 1879 |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | physics |
| Known for | Geissler tubes |
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Geißler (May 26, 1814, Igelshieb - January 24, 1879) was a German physicist and inventor of the Geissler tube, a low pressure gas-discharge tube made of glass.
Geissler descended from a long line of craftsmen in the Thüringer Wald and in Böhmen.[1] He found work in different German universities, eventually including the University of Bonn. There he was asked by physicist Julius Plücker to design an apparatus for evacuating a glass tube.
Plücker owed his forthcoming success in the electric discharge experiments in large measure to his instrument maker, the skilled glassblower and mechanic Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Geissler. He learned the art of glassblowing in the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen.... He finally settled down as an instrument-maker in a workshop of his own at the University of Bonn in 1852.[1]
Geissler made a hand-crank mercury pump, and glass tubes that could contain a superior vacuum.
The future value of Plücker and Geissler's research 'toy' - apart from neon lighting - would be fully realized only 50 years later when Lee De Forest invented the Audion vacuum tube in 1906 ... creating the entire basis of long-distance wireless radio (and TV) communications.
Geissler was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1868.[1]