Eugen Goldstein facts for kids

Eugen Goldstein (born September 5, 1850 – died December 25, 1930) was a German scientist. He was a pioneer in studying special glass tubes called discharge tubes. He is famous for discovering "canal rays." These rays were later found to be positive ions, which are tiny charged particles. Eugen Goldstein was also the great-uncle of famous violinists Mikhail and Boris Goldstein.

A Scientist's Life

Eugen Goldstein was born in 1850 in a place called Gleiwitz. This area is now known as Gliwice in Poland. He came from a Jewish family.

He went to university in Breslau. Later, he studied in Berlin under a famous scientist named Helmholtz. Goldstein worked at the Berlin Observatory for a few years. But he spent most of his career at the Potsdam Observatory. There, he became the head of the astrophysics section in 1927. He passed away in 1930 and was buried in Berlin.

Goldstein's Discoveries

In the mid-1800s, scientists were very interested in how electricity behaved in special glass tubes. These tubes had most of the air removed from them. When electricity passed through, they would glow.

Early Work with Discharge Tubes

A scientist named Julius Plücker studied the light from these tubes. He also looked at how magnets affected the glow. Later, in 1869, Johann Wilhelm Hittorf studied rays coming from the negative end of the tube. This negative end is called the cathode. These rays made the glass glow when they hit it. If something blocked the rays, it would cast a shadow.

In the 1870s, Goldstein started his own research on these tubes. He named the glowing rays coming from the cathode Kathodenstrahlen, or cathode rays. He found important things about them. For example, he learned that cathode rays shot out straight from a metal surface. They also carried energy. These discoveries helped scientists later figure out that cathode rays were made of tiny particles called electrons. Electrons were the first subatomic particle ever found.

Discovering Canal Rays

In 1886, Goldstein made another big discovery. He found that if the cathode had holes in it, a glow also appeared behind the cathode. This glow traveled in the opposite direction to the cathode rays.

Goldstein realized that besides the cathode rays (which are electrons moving towards the positive end, called the anode), there was another type of ray. Because these new rays passed through the holes, or "channels," in the cathode, Goldstein called them Kanalstrahlen, or canal rays.

These canal rays are made of positive ions. Ions are atoms or molecules that have an electric charge. The type of ion depends on the gas inside the tube. Another student of Helmholtz, Wilhelm Wien, later studied canal rays in detail. His work helped create a method called mass spectrometry. This method is used to identify different substances.

The Proton and Comets

The canal ray with the lightest particles comes from hydrogen gas. These particles are H⁺ ions, which are also known as protons. Goldstein's work with these hydrogen ions was likely the first time anyone observed the proton. However, it was Wien who later measured the exact properties of the proton.

Goldstein also used his discharge tubes to study how comets behave. He would place a small object, like a glass or iron ball, in the path of cathode rays. This would create a glow that spread outwards, much like a comet's tail.

See also

In Spanish: Eugen Goldstein para niños