During his long career, the English chemist and entrepreneur, Sir William Crookes, was able to make significant contributions to photography, chemistry, physics, agricultural science, public health, and scientific journalism. Historians of science have recognized Crookes for his brilliance as an experimental researcher and his controversial investigations into spiritualistic phenomena; however, he made his living primarily as a science journalist and editor. His interests were eclectic, ranging from pure and applied science, economic and practical problems, and psychic research. He is credited with the discovery of the element thallium, investigations of cathode rays, and invention of the radiometer. He held patents on early light bulbs and his improvements in vacuum pump technology were key to the development of electric lighting and the discovery of the X-ray. His wide range of interests and prolific publication of his and others’ works made him a well-known personality within the late Victorian era scientific community. By the turn of the twentieth-century he was regarded as Britain’s leading scientist.

“Sir William Crookes: A Short Biography” reveals the life and times of one of the great scientific minds of the nineteenth-century.