Photocell
date: label: date made
content: 1930s
name: label: maker
content: Kunz, Jakob
notes: label: Description
content: Potassium hydride cell that Jakob Kunz made for Joel Stebbins in the 1930s.
label: Description
content: Born and trained in Switzerland, Jakob Kunz (1874-1938) 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 a photocell 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 photocell 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."
label: Description
content: Ref: Gerald Kron, "Joel Stebbins 1878-1966," <i>Publications of Astronomical Society of the Pacific</i> 78 (1966) 62-65.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Urbana
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gerald E. Kron
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.328774
label: catalog number
content: 328774
label: accession number
content: 1988.0554
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photocell
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 8 1/4 in x 2 in; 5.08 cm x 20.955 cm x 5.08 cm