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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
Incoming links: Donald Arthur Glaser
Glaser bubble-chamber experiment 2026-10-18
Donald Arthur Glaser developed the bubble chamber in 1952 during experimental particle research at Michigan.[ref]
His 1960 lecture, Elementary particles and bubble chambers, describes evacuated capillary bulbs containing pure diethyl ether. Cooling one bulb reduced pressure; the other remained hot. A cobalt-60 source initiated boiling. Small glass chambers subsequently used hot-oil baths, hand-cranked pistons and high-speed photography. Automatic cycling with counter-controlled flashes produced finer tracks. Local ionization deposits energy that can initiate bubble nucleation.[ref]
Later metal-chamber photographs compared operation with and without a nearby radioactive source: wall boiling occurred without interior tracks; irradiation produced tracks before disruptive flow ended sensitivity.[ref]
Elementary Particles and Bubble Chambers by Donald Arthur Glaser. pp. 539–543, Fig. 6
These observations separate two questions: can radiation start boiling, and can a detector preserve the geometry of a passing charged particle? Whole-vessel boiling alone answers only the first. Wall background, finite sensitivity and growth before photography constrain the second.
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1960 2026-10-18
Awarded to Donald Arthur Glaser for inventing the bubble chamber.[ref]
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1960 by Nobel Prize Outreach. Award year, laureate and bubble-chamber invention motivation