Ampola de william crookes biography

A Crookes tube (also

One of the greatest physicists of the last century and an early exponent of scientific investigation of psychic phenomena. Even without a graduate education, he became one of the most decorated scientists of his era. In he made his first great discovery, the element thallium. Two years later, he became an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

Crookes seems to have been led into research on Spiritualism because of the untimely death of his brother Philip in He first came into contact with psychic phenomena in July in a sitting with Mary Marshall. He was further intrigued by trance speaker J. Morse in December, and in July , after the arrival of Henry Slade in London, he announced his intention to investigate the phenomena of Spiritualism.

In an early article , he declares:. I prefer to enter upon the inquiry with no preconceived notions whatever as to what can or cannot be, but with all my senses alert and ready to convey information to the brain; believing, as I do, that we have by no means exhausted all human knowledge or fathomed the depths of all the physical forces.

The investigation had been suggested to him "by eminent men exercising great influence on the thought of the country. Newspaper reporters received the announcement with jubilation. It was taken for granted that Spiritualism would be shown as clear and simple humbug. They were disappointed. The investigation began in May , after the return of D.