spinthariscope

American  

[spin-thar-uh-skohp] / spɪnˈθær əˌskoʊp /

noun

1. an instrument that detects ionizing radiation by picking up sparks of light from alpha particles.

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spinthariscope British  

/ spɪnˈθærɪˌskəʊp /

noun

1. a device for observing ionizing radiation, consisting of a tube with a magnifying lens at one end and a phosphorescent screen at the other. A particle hitting the screen produces a scintillation

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Other Word Forms

• spinthariscopic adjective

Etymology

Origin of spinthariscope

First recorded in 1900–1905; formed irregulary from Greek spintharí(s) (inflectional stem spintharíd- ) “spark” + -scope ( def. )

Example Sentences

A Porter Chemcraft kit had uranium samples and a spinthariscope, a device for viewing radioactive decay.

From New York Times

"You are letting a 12-year-old blow glass, there was uranium dust with a spinthariscope where you could see the radiation waves," says Rosie Cook, assistant curator at the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

From BBC

An authority on precious stones, and especially the diamond, he succeeded in artificially making some minute specimens of the latter gem; and on the discovery of radium he was one of the first to take up the study of its properties, in particular inventing the spinthariscope, an instrument in which the effects of a trace of radium salt are manifested by the phosphorescence produced on a zinc sulphide screen.

From Project Gutenberg

As mothers worried about strontium-90 from fallout insinuating its way into their children’s bones, they were reading “Atomic Bunny” comic books and sending in cereal box tops for the Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb Ring, a cheap plastic spinthariscope that promised a glimpse of “genuine atoms split to smithereens.”

From New York Times

A simple form of apparatus called the spinthariscope has been devised to show these scintillations.

From Project Gutenberg