HomeOdditiesNo. 19

Objects From the Future · No. 19

Crookes Radiometer

For a windowsill that should be doing something when the sun comes in.

Oddity 1 is familiar. 5 is genuinely strange.

A glass bulb with black-and-white vanes that spin when light hits them, and sit still in the dark. No battery, no motor.

Three reasons

  1. William Crookes built the first one in 1873, and the explanation is still weirder than the toy.
  2. A flashlight is enough. Sunlight is better.
  3. The link is the TEDCO radiometer, the small one with the black base, not a classroom giant.

Gift for

ScientistsDesk dwellersCoworkersBirthdayHousewarmingJust because

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