Cathode rays

From PhalkeFactory

Cathode ray.jpg

A heated filament in a vaccuum created by a glass container. The small particles that make the tube are rattled by the heat into letting go of their electrons. These loose electrons do something in that vaccuum that makes them give a floursecent light as they reach the walls of their glasshouse. What do they do?


Vishvamitra, the angry sage, was stoking the fires of his mind, heating it, hotter and hotter, wanting its energy to transport his friend, Trishanku, into the vault of the skies. It worked, and Trishanku spun, loosened from the intricate bonds that kept him tied to the herd of humankind, into the vaccuum of the sky, like a loose electron. The gods would not let him into their world, however, and Vishwamitra's head heat never abated enough for him to return. And so Trishanku shines in the glasshouse of the gods, forever and ever.


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"There is no other branch of physics which affords us so promising an oppurtunity of penetrating the secret of electricity" J.J. Thomson, 1893