ABSTRACT
The important lecture on radiant matter that Crookes gave to the British Association at Sheffield in August 1879 more or less marked the end of the long trajectory of research connected with the radiometer. In 1880 Crookes moved to a large and fashionable house in Notting Hill, where he built a new laboratory on the first floor adjacent to his library. As mentioned in Chapter 14, his faithful assistant Charles Gimingham left his employ in 1881 after 12 years in Crookes’ service in order to use his skill with vacuum pumps in work for Swan in Newcastle developing the electric light bulb industry. Crookes’ notebooks show that he remained without a paid assistant for some time, since entries from 7 February 1881 to 7 Ju1y 1883 are in his handwriting. He then engaged a new assistant in the 22-year-old James Gardiner (1859-1946), a qualified analytical chemist and London science graduate. Whereas with Gimingham, Crookes had spent much time away from London working for the Native Guano Company, he was now deeply involved in the electric supply industry and other matters. Business still occupied most of his time, and Gardiner proved to be another faithful assistant. He did not live in, but commuted from his own home in Wroughton Road in Balham each day to work in Crookes’ grand new home in Kensington Park Gardens. Gardiner married in 1884 and had three children.1 Together Crookes and Gardiner developed a new interest in spectroscopy and phosphorescent spectra.
