Photocell
date: label: date made
content: 1940s
name: label: maker
content: General Electric Company
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 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: Description
content: This example is a Western Electric D-97087 photocell that Stebbins used for six color photometry in the 1940s.
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.328775
label: accession number
content: 1988.0554
label: catalog number
content: 328775
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photocell
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/4 in x 2 1/2 in; 12.065 cm x 6.35 cm