Refrigerated Receiver
notes: label: Description
content: Joel Stebbins (1878-1966) was an astronomer who, while teaching at the University of Illinois, was led by his colleague, Jakob Kunz, 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 item is 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: This is a balsa wood box that holds a brass tank that can hold the Western Electric photocell (PH.328775) that Stebbins used for six color photometry in the 1940s. In use, the box would be packed with dry ice mixed with iso-propyl alcohol.
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
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.328776
label: accession number
content: 1988.0554
label: catalog number
content: 328776
objectType: label: Object Name
content: refigerated receiver
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/4 in x 5 5/8 in x 5 5/8 in; 23.495 cm x 14.2875 cm x 14.2875 cm