British chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who invented the Crookes tube, a foundational discovery that eventually changed the whole of chemistry and physics. He is also credited with discovering the element thallium with the help of spectroscopy and he was also the first to describe the spectrum of terrestrial helium. For a time, he was interested in spiritualism and became president of the Society for Psychical Research. Rare TLS, one page, 4 x 5.25, 7. Kensington Park Gardens (London) letterhead, February 4, 1910. Letter to Tilden, ostensibly fellow British chemist William A. Tilden, in full: “I have the pleasure of enclosing three papers bearing on the subject of ‘genesis.’ I have marked in red the passages which I think are what you were enquiring about, so as to save you the trouble of wading through them. They were given to different societies and audiences, so there is much repetition, but each contains something not in the other papers. You are quite welcome to make copies of any of the diagrams, and if I have the wood blocks I will lend them to you.” Matted with a Leslie 'Spy' Ward caricature to an overall size of 15.5 x 12. In fine condition.
On February 18, 1877, Crookes delivered an address to the Royal Institution, London, on the Genesis of the Elements. He later said: ‘If we can show how the so-called chemical elements might have been generated we shall be able to fill up a formidable gap in our knowledge of the universe.’
Sir William Augustus Tilden was a British chemist (1842–1926) who discovered that isoprene could be made from turpentine but was unable to turn this discovery into a way to make commercially viable synthetic rubber. From 1894 to his death he was at London’s Royal College of Science, serving as Professor of Chemistry to 1909, Dean from 1905 to 1909, and then Emeritus Professor. Tilden became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1880 and was Vice-President from 1904 to 1906; in 1908 he was awarded the society’s Davy Medal. From 1903 to 1905 he served as president of the Chemical Society, which has awarded the Tilden Prize annually since 1939.
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