aurora egg and tube
TRANSCRIPT
8/16/2019 Aurora Egg and Tube
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aurora-egg-and-tube 1/5
Electric Egg The electric egg lies at the intersection of two technologies: high vacuum and highvoltage. By the eighteen sixties vacuum pumps, and induction coils and electrostaticmachines (including Wimshurst and Voss machines) had developed to the point where itwas possile to create an electrical discharge in the residual gas etween two small
spheres in the evacuated space. !assiot"s #hower is another example of an electricaldischarge etween two electrodes in a near vacuum. $nli%e !eissler tues, which areevacuated and sealed off, electric eggs are pumped out each time, the valve closed, andthe tue placed ac% on its foot for the demonstration. The upper electrode can e slid upand down through a leather&lined and greased pac%ing to change the length of thedischarge. With residual air, the glow is luish, ut other gases and li'uids can eintroduced into the egg to give different colors of discharge. #ome of the eggs have hoo%son the upper electrodes, to allow them to e hung from one conductor of the high&voltagesource.
The egg in the mherst ollege ollection was made y *. +ucretet and ompany of
aris.
Amherst College Glasgow University
Smithsonian Institution
8/16/2019 Aurora Egg and Tube
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aurora-egg-and-tube 2/5
-ote that the electric egg in the middle elow is made from uranium glass, with is also present in the !assiot"s #hower cup.
The left&hand example is y pps of ondon, and is not a true electric egg. very similar piece is shown at a price of /0.11 in the 2340 catalogue of Ben5amin i%e, 6r. of -ew7or%, who may have imported the apparatus. The electrodes are made of caron, and
ad5usted until they almost touch. fter the gloe is filled with chlorine gas, an electric arcis struc% etween the electrodes, which glow red hot. The chlorine is unaffected y theheating of the electrodes.
Dartmouth College Wittenberg University
Dartmouth College
The upperelectric egg is at
Bates ollege in8aine, and wasmade yhamerlain ofBoston. This firm ecamehamerlain and9itchie y 234,
8/16/2019 Aurora Egg and Tube
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aurora-egg-and-tube 3/5
which sets anupper ound to itsage.
The lower
example is from#t. 8ary"sollege in -otre+ame, ;ndiana.
9eturn to #tatic*lectricity <ome
age
9eturn to <omeage
late 23th cent. 8aterials: mahogany, glass, rass +imensions: total height 431 mm ;nventory:
urora tue (;nv. 2=1>)
This device was used to simulate the aurora orealis phenomenon.
The glass tue is supported on a glass pillar, with aturned mahogany ase, weighted y means of a leadring to prevent the instrument from toppling over. rass spi%e pro5ects at right angles from the upper rass collar. all electrode is 5oined to the lower rass collar. ;nside the tue are two other electrodes:
the upper one ends in a point, the lower one in a all.
The tue is partially evacuated y means of an air pump. The glass is then rued with acloth or the electrodes are touched with the conductor of an electrical machine. Theelectrification causes the inside of the tue to glow with a light closely resemling anaurora orealis.
8/16/2019 Aurora Egg and Tube
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aurora-egg-and-tube 4/5
William <enley used a comparale instrument to demonstrate the glow produced y positive or negative discharges. <e claimed this as proving Ben5amin ?ran%lin"s theory of a single electric fluid. ?ilippo ucci depicted a very similar device in the #tan@ino of the8atematiche of the $ffi@i in 2A31clear evidence of the popularity of suchdemonstrations in the late eighteenth century. rovenance: orraine collections.
late 23th cent. 8aterials: glass, rass, leadfoil +imensions: total height =A4mm, max. diameter Cmm
;nventory: => urora flas% (;nv.=>)
ear&shaped glassvessel with central rass spi%e and threaded rass collar, covered y a cap. The outer halfof the flas% is covered with lead foil (originally tin foil).
This device was used to simulate the aurora orealis phenomenon. The flas% wasconnected to an air pump and partially evacuated. ;t was then electrified y means of the prime conductor of an electrical machine. The glow produced at the spi%e, which greatlyresemled an aurora orealis, ehaved differently for positive and negative electricalcharges. rovenance: orraine collections.
8iroslav TichDEs haunting snapshots of girls in various @ech par%s are here,too,symptoms of a Blue Velvet&ish %ind of curiosity,though theyEre maye most peculiarintheir technical provenance, as they were caught on a homemade camera uiltfromcardoard and salvaged glass. +ating from etween 2C41 and 2C31, they recall 2Cth¢ury spiritualist photographs, their su5ects resemle wraiths peering outof a toxicmist. TichD was possily the first person to detect the erotic properties of shadows.
-ina anellEs The -ew 8ineral (=11C) might e a newly discovered readymadey8arcel +uchamp: a reconstructionof an early radiometer uilt y the Victorian occultistWilliam roo%s, it consists of dimly glowing light&uls on roomstic%s, all ut onecontaining dreamily twirling spindles. Fddly exemplary of much of the exhiition, this piece occupies some seductive, mysterious territory etween weird science experimentand dar%ly metaphorical, uncanny invention.
8/16/2019 Aurora Egg and Tube
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aurora-egg-and-tube 5/5
The version of contemporary art that GuriosityE suggests is one which ta%esa sly 5oy in playing with science li%e a #urrealist playing with a 5ournalist, feeding it metaphysicalriddles it canEt comprehend: see, for instance, Toril 6ohannessenEsimpossile graphs,transformations of data into ex'uisitely meaningless astractions that purport to recordGove and ogic inrtE or G8iracles in -ature and #cienceE (=122). *lsewhere, thereEs a
section of gencyEs somre archive pro5ect uriosity (ssemly) (2CC=Hongoing). 9owupon row of oxes are neatly serried to the ceiling, their contents indexed ut historyoscureI a typical ox contains a telephone directory, a copy of 6ean !enetEs The ThiefEs6ournal (2CC) and GThe 8agicianEs oat #e'uenceE.