Photocell
date: label: date made
content: 1920s
name: label: maker
content: Kunz, Jakob
notes: label: Description
content: Jakob Kunz (1874-1938), an important pioneer in the development of photoelectric cells, made this potassium hydride cell in the 1920s. Attached to the 12-inch refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, it used by Joel Stebbins, by Gerald Kron, and by Mary Elizabeth Cummings.
label: Description
content: Born and trained in Switzerland, Kunz 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 one of his photocells 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 example 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: 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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0623.01
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0623.01
label: accession number
content: 1982.0623
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quartz potassium-hydride photocell
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall in box: 4 1/2 in x 10 1/4 in x 4 1/8 in; 11.43 cm x 26.035 cm x 10.4775 cm