Glaser bubble-chamber experiment (source code)

= Glaser bubble-chamber experiment
{c}

<Donald Arthur Glaser> developed the <bubble chamber> in 1952 during experimental <particle (physics)> research at Michigan.<Donald Glaser: Biography Submitted by Dr. Glaser to the Nobel Committee by Donald Arthur Glaser>[Biography, research paragraph]{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>.<Elementary Particles and Bubble Chambers by Donald Arthur Glaser>[pp. 531–538, Figs. 1–4]{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.<Elementary Particles and Bubble Chambers by Donald Arthur Glaser>[pp. 539–543, Fig. 6]{ref}

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.